Frequently asked questions
1. Good causes
1.1 Which good causes can I support?
We support a variety of causes focusing on as diverse topics as children, emergency aid, the environment and animal welfare. You can see the full list here.
Since we are just starting out, we have decided to support relatively few organizations in those categories. We would rather be able to donate substantial amounts to fewer organizations, than just a few pennies to thousands of organizations.
Once our user base grows, we will add support for more good causes in a larger variety of categories, with a health category being our next priority.
1.2 Who selects the good causes?
We have selected the initial causes, but in the future, we want to let users have a say in which good causes Givero supports.
1.3 My favorite charity is not listed, how can I include it?
We are starting out with relatively few organizations in a few categories, as we would rather be able to donate substantial amounts to fewer organizations, than pennies to many. However, we'd love to hear your suggestions of which charities to add next, so please do get in touch.
1.4 Why are there no local causes in my country?
We are starting out with a list of international organizations, and since our home country is Denmark, we have also selected a list of Danish good causes. We will test our business model and marketing efforts on our home market first, and expand to include more countries as soon as we can. If you work with a charity in your country and want us to consider it for inclusion, please get in touch.
1.5 How do I select a good cause to support?
Check (enable) the checkboxes on the list of good causes page.
1.6 Can I support more than one good cause?
Yes, absolutely. You can select as many as you wish from the list of good causes that we support. Credit for your searches is distributed evenly among the causes you have selected.
1.7 What if I don't select a specific cause?
If you don't select one or more specific causes, we will register and distribute your searches evenly among all organizations.
2. Donations
2.1 Is it free to use Givero?
It is absolutely free to use Givero. We offer you a way to support good causes simply by changing your search habits. Switch from Google to Givero, and we will donate half of our gross revenue to good causes.
2.2 Do you need my credit card?
No. Our service is free, and you help us donate money simply by performing your online searches on Givero instead of on Google.
2.3 Can I donate money?
No. We do not accept direct donations on behalf of the supported organizations. If you wish to donate money or sign up for a monthly membership of an organization, you need to visit their official homepage. You can find a link to their homepage from the organization's page on our site via our organization list.
3. Distribution of funds
3.1 How do you distribute the money?
You help decide how much money each good cause will receive. You earn money to the good causes you have chosen when you search on Givero.
Each valid query performed by you will be registered on a good cause. If you have selected one or more good causes, your searches are registered and distributed evenly among those you have selected.
If you have not selected any specific good causes, your search queries will be registered and distributed evenly among all good causes we support.
Each month we reiceve a report from our search partner, detailing number of valid search queries per good cause and our earnings. Based on these numbers, de distribute half of the received amount between the good causes, depending on how many valid queries their supporters have performed. We pay the participating organizations quarterly to minimize administration for both us and them.
If you change your selected good causes, it does not affect any previously registered search queries.
3.2 How does my personal counter work?
The counter increases every time you perform a different search query, so it shows you how many searches you have supported your selected good causes with.
3.3 What is a valid search query?
Only valid search queries are used when calculating the distribution of money.
Any fraudulent, automated or otherwise programmatic queries are deemed invalid, and so are excessive amounts of unnatural ad-clicks. If we detect this, it may result in your access to the site being blocked and the earnings from your search queries being voided.
The same query performed multiple times the same day is equivalent to one valid search query.
We reserve the right to ignore search queries from countries where we do not display advertisements.
3.4 My counter was reset, what happened?
If your counter resets to zero, it means that the cookie we use for storing it in your web browser no longer exists. It can happen if you clear your browser history, run a system cleanup process or have a cookie manager installed in your browser.
Don't worry though; your search queries are not lost. It is only the counter on your device that was reset. Every time you perform a search query, our search partner registeres which good cause it should be assigned to.
4. Givero Search
4.1 Where does your search results come from?
We get our search results from Microsoft through a partnership with CodeFuel, who are authorized by Microsoft to handle partnerships with small to mid-sized companies.
4.2 Is my privacy protected?
We only share search data with our two partners directly involved with providing us search results and search ads. This is a technical requiement so that Givero Search can function. Our partners are CodeFuel and Microsoft.
The following data is transferred to our search partners when you submit a search request: IP address, user agent string, search term, country and language settings, filter settings for adult content, active search filter settings (e.g. filter search results by date).
CodeFuel acts as a 'middle-man' between small to medium-sized partners and Microsoft, and passes the data on to them in order to serve search results and ads. CodeFuel uses this information themselves to build metrics and statistics about the service usage. The information is not sold to or shared with anybody - see their privacy policy.
Microsoft uses this information to provide relevant search results and advertisements and to detect fraudulent ad-clicks and other malicious traffic in order to protect their advertisers - see their privacy policy.
We do not use any third-party technologies on our search pages that would reveal your search data to others.
Search data is logged on our servers to detect fraud. These logs are anonymized after 5 days. Please see our privacy policy for details.
5. Who are you?
5.1 Who is behind the project?
Givero is a privately owned company located in Holbaek, Denmark. It was founded in October 2018.
In Denmark, company details are public information and you can access the official information about Givero here.
Givero's owner, Brian Rasmusson, has a long history in IT as a developer of products and services ranging from access control and billing solutions for mobile operators to successful Windows software and information portals.
5.2 Who is on the team?
Right now we have two people working full time from the Danish office, Brian Schildt Laursen (aka B2) and Brian Rasmusson (aka B1). We take care of the day-to-day operations. Laursen's primary focus is communication, PR and partnerships, and Rasmusson's primary focus is on the technical and business side of things.
We work with a range of wonderful freelancers located around the world, who handle everything from copywriting and proofreading to development. If you think we need you too, please get in touch.
5.3 Why do you donate to good causes?
Our founder, Brian Rasmusson, has donated to various good causes over the years and he has also invested in projects where he felt it was the right thing to do, more than being a safe investment. This includes a substantial investment in an unlisted company doing immunotherapy research to combat brain cancer.
After having worked on another search engine for the last three years, an idea started to form:
"Why not create a search engine that has a more philanthropic approach - one that will support good causes. A search engine that would direct money towards the common good. A search engine that would take a little bit of the money heading towards the mega-rich owners of Google and put it to work where it really matters. A search engine that would give the users the wonderful feeling of doing something good - all without them having to reach for their wallet"
This became Givero.
Can we make a difference? We absolutely believe we can - but we need you onboard. Search on Givero instead of Google. Together we can do it.
We have a saying in Danish 'mange bække små gør en stor å' - which roughly translates to 'small streams combine to become large rivers'. We need a lot of users to make this work.
Please share Givero with your friends and let's make an impact together - the more the better.