GENERAL QUESTIONS
ClassWish.org/Shop is an easy way to help teachers and school children at no cost to you. Just start on our site when you shop online, and you can generate funds to provide the K-12 teacher, school, or educational nonprofit of your choice with funds for school resources.
- We make it easy. Visit the ClassWish shopping page of the school or teacher you want to support. (You do not even have to join).
- See all the banners there for hundreds of online stores. Browse or search for your favorites.
- When you click a store’s banner from our site, we will open the website for that store in a new tab.
- The link we use to take you there will identify ClassWish and the school or teacher from whose page you clicked the store banner.
- Shop like you normally do. The only difference is that you will be earning donations to help schoolchildren at the same time.
- When you make a qualifying transaction, the merchant will pay us a percentage of the purchase price (called an affiliate fee) for sending you there. You pay nothing extra. (Please note that some merchants may not pay a commission on every purchase, and they may not pay the same percentage on every purchase. We do not always know and are not responsible for indicating which transactions will be qualifying, nor how much the merchant will pay on each).
- We donate 75% of the affiliate fee that we actually receive from the merchant to the wish list of the school or teacher from whose shopping page you clicked the store banner. We fund those wish list accounts approximately ten business daysafter we receive the funds from the stores.
We also display deals and coupons to help you save money while you are helping students. Those are provided by the merchants.
Yes! Totally free for consumers, schools, and educators.
HOW IS CLASSWISH.ORG/SHOP BETTER THAN SIMILAR SITES?
ClassWish.org/Shop Makes it Easier.
Here, there is no need to register, provide personal information, watch for an email, activate
an account, or log in. Just go to the shopping page of the school or teacher you want to
support, and click a merchant to start shopping and earning donations.
ClassWish.org/Shop is Much More Generous.
Other sites of this type are for-profit businesses that generally donate 20% to 50% of the
affiliate fees they receive. We donate 75%. (We wish we could donate it all, but we need
to cover our expenses. As we grow, we expect to be able to donate more, so please spread
the word and encourage others to shop here – especially if they are connected with your
favorite schools and teachers).
ClassWish.org/Shop Lets You Support More Schools.
At ClassWish.org/Shop, you can shop to support any public or nonprofit K-12 school, day-
care center, after-school program, youth-serving nonprofit (such as Girl Scouts, Girls and
Boys Clubs, and youth sports teams) in the country. We already have about 99% of the K-
12 schools on our site, and we add more all the time. If you do not see your favorite school,
just let us know so we can add it.
ClassWish.org/Shop Lets You Support Individual Teachers
Here, you can shop to support not just schools, but even individual educators or school
activities. No other site lets you do that. Want to support the school band, football team, or
other student activity? Just ask the teacher or coach to create a wish list. We welcome:
- Teachers
- Coaches
- Student teachers
- School librarians
- School guidance counselors
- School nurses
- Administrators
- PTA / PTO leaders
- Officers of educational nonprofits
That’s right.
Other sites of this type are for-profit businesses that generally donate 20% to 50% of the affiliate fees they receive.
ClassWish is a nonprofit. Since our mission is helping teachers and children, we donate much more: 75%. (We need to use some of the fees to pay our expenses, but we expect to increase the 75% figure as we grow – so spread the word and let others know about this site).
We provide instructions on our web site for educators to use funds to obtain educational materials from the vendors we buy from. In short:
- Educators send us requests for materials
- We order the items from the vendors (that list changes from time to time but can be seen at see at http://ClassWish-Vendors.org)
- We deduct from the educator’s wish list account only the retail price of the items.
- We pay the vendor for the materials.
- The vendor ships right to the school.
- PTA / PTO leaders
- Officers of educational nonprofits
Different merchants pay us different amounts for referring customers.
On each school shopping page and teacher shopping page, we show what we believe to be the percentage of the purchase price that we will be donating to the wish list accounts (that is, the affiliate fee we expect to receive, multiplied by 75%). From time to time, the actual donation percentage may be more or less. Among other reasons, some merchants pay different amounts on different categories of items; many will not pay an affiliate fee on gift cards or certificates; and some may change their affiliate fees. In case of any discrepancy, you can rest assured that we always donate 75% of the affiliate fees we receive from the merchants. That is far more than the 20% to 50% that other sites donate.
Absolutely! Faster and with greater certainty.
All sites like this deal with merchants through the same affiliate networks, so we call get reports on the same schedule. It can take up to eight weeks from the time of purchase for merchants to report sales, and travel partners generally do not report purchases until a few weeks after the travel ends.
There are four big difference in when those funds are available to the schools to start helping students and teachers.
- When
- ClassWish.org/Shop calculates the donations for each school and each teacher within ten business days of receiving merchant reports and payments, and we credit the donations to their wish lists within ten business days of that.
- Some similar sites send out checks just twice a year or even as infrequently as once a year.
- No Minimums
- ClassWish.org/Shop credits the school and educator wish lists no matter what the amount.
- Some similar sites send out checks only if the amount the school earns some minimum amount, which in some cases is as much as $100.
- No Forfeiture
- As we noted, ClassWish.org/Shop credits the school and educator wish lists no matter what the amount.
- Some similar sites that cause the school to forfeit their donations if they do not reach a certain threshold.
- No Administrative Fee
- ClassWish.org/Shop does not charge the school or educator any administrative fee.
- Some similar sites charge administrative fees if donations do not reach a certain level.
Some people have toolbars in their web browsers that will override other affiliate links, including links from ClassWish.org/Shop. If you want to earn 75% of the affiliate fee for your chosen school or teacher, be sure to remove any of those toolbars, including ones you may have from GoodShop, OneCause, iGive, or We-Care!
QUESTIONS FROM EDUCATORS
Of course! Just start at your ClassWish.org shopping page.
Start by finding your school, and just follow the directions. We made it quick and easy. You will be up and running in minutes.
Just send us an email at feedback [AT] ClassWish.org, and we will add it as quickly as possible.
- Sure. Experience shows that you will likely do better if you do the following: Display a photo.
- Provide some profile text about your classroom needs.
- Take a minute to customize your wish list (we made it quick and easy).
- Use the social media tools to spread the word.
- Ask your school to display a ClassWish banner linking to the school’s ClassWish page on its website.
- Tell friends, family, parents of your students, college classmates, and others who care about you and about children. This is a great way for them to help your students at no cost to them.
- Use the tools to help spread the word at http://ClassWish-Shop.org.
QUESTIONS FROM MERCHANTS
I own a store. Can we participate? We would be glad to hear from you. Just contact us at feedback [AT] ClassWish.org
ClassWish Eligibility Requirements
ClassWish invites leaders of FIRST Robotics teams and also invites teachers, student teachers, substitute teachers, part-time after school teachers, staff developers, librarians, guidance counselors, school nurses, coaches, principals, administrators, other school employees directly serving students in an educational capacity, and officers acting on behalf of school Parent Teacher Association units recognized by the National Parent Teacher Association and on behalf of other parent teacher organizations (collectively, “Educators”) in K-12, public, magnet and charter schools, and private and parochial that are exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, and that are in the 50 states or the District of Columbia (collectively, “Allowed Schools”) to create wish lists (“Wish Lists”) indicating the supplies and equipment they need for their students to excel and to submit requests (“Requests”) for ClassWish to provide particular items funded by contributions to such Wish Lists.
Funded Requests cannot be transferred to another Educator.
In order to register on ClassWish.org and create Wish Lists and Requests, you must attest to the following:
- I confirm that I am a leader of a FIRST Robotics team or am an Educator in an Allowed School, as those terms are defined above;
- The activities for which I intend to use any items received through ClassWish are legal and fall within the standards of my state and/or local board or department of education, and the policies of my school or, in the case of FIRST Robotics team leaders, fall within the standards of FIRST Robotics;
- All information I provide to ClassWish is accurate, and I will promptly update the information to keep it accurate;
- Any Requests I submit and any funding or items I receive are solely for use in my classroom and/or school, or in the case of FIRST Robotics team leaders are solely for use by my FIRST team, and any items I request through ClassWish will not be for my or anyone else’s personal use;
- I agree that any items provided to me by ClassWish shall become and remain the property of (i) the school to which ClassWish has them delivered, and I will not take such items to another school, or (ii) in the case of a FIRST Robotics team such items provided to me by ClassWish or purchased with funds provided to me by ClassWish shall become and remain the property of the FIRST Robotics team or, if such is dissolved, shall become the property of FIRST Robotics.
- I commit to including in my Wish Lists and Requests only items that will benefit my students’ education, including extracurricular activities, and to use any items that I receive from ClassWish only for such purposes.
- I agree that in the event that ClassWish determines that any items I received through ClassWish are not being used in accordance with these Eligibility Requirements, I will return such items to ClassWish at my expense. In the case of FIRST teams, ClassWish may rely on the determination of FIRST Robotics in this regard.
