Building the Routine

The Habit Guide

Signing up is the easy part. The real magic happens when buying a gift card before you shop becomes as automatic as grabbing your keys. These are the habits that turn occasional users into consistent earners for the animals.

The only extra cost is a tiny processing fee — just 29¢ per checkout when you pay from your bank account, whether you buy one card or ten. It’s just a small change in when you pay — buying the gift card right before you make the purchase you were going to make anyway. That 29¢ turns into $5, $12, or more for the animals every single time.

What Your Spending Actually Earns

Real numbers from brands you already use.

Home Depot run

$800 at Home Depot (4%)

$32for the animals

A typical remodel materials trip

Monthly groceries at Kroger

$600 at Kroger (4%)

$24for the animals

Do this 12 months and the animals earn $288/year

Back-to-school at Gap / Old Navy

$300 at Gap (14%)

$42for the animals

Clothing brands have some of the highest rates

Family dinner at Chili’s

$60 at Chili’s (11%)

$7for the animals

Even a $60 dinner sends $6.60 to the barn

Bath & Body Works haul

$100 at Bath & Body Works (12%)

$12for the animals

29¢ processing → $12 for the animals

These are based on standard RaiseRight percentages. Some brands run bonus promotions that push rates even higher.

The 3-Minute Parking Lot Habit

The single most effective habit for new users

You’re in the parking lot of the store. Before you get out of the car, open the RaiseRight app on your phone. Search for the store. Buy an eGift card for roughly what you plan to spend. By the time you unbuckle your seatbelt, it’s in your Wallet and ready to use at checkout.

Open the RaiseRight app

Search for the store you're at

Buy an eGift card (round up a bit if unsure)

Open your Wallet — the card is ready

At checkout, show the barcode or enter the code

Pro tip: If you buy a $50 card and only spend $43, the remaining $7 stays on the card for next time. Nothing is lost.

The Sunday Night Prep

For planners who like to batch

Once a week — Sunday evening works great — think about the week ahead. Where will you shop? Where will you eat? What bills are due? Pre-buy the gift cards now so they’re loaded in your Wallet and ready when you need them.

Grocery store for the week — $150 eGift card

Two tanks of gas — $80 Shell card

Wednesday dinner out — $50 restaurant card

Coffee habit — reload Starbucks card

Pro tip: Set a recurring phone reminder for “RaiseRight Prep” on Sunday at 7 PM. Five minutes of prep covers the whole week — and because the 29¢ bank-pay fee is per checkout, buying all four of those cards at once costs the same as buying one. More cards in one checkout = more leverage for the animals.

The Big Purchase Playbook

Where Retail Charity gets exciting

Planning a vacation? Remodeling a bathroom? Buying back-to-school clothes? These are the purchases where the earnings really add up. Before you commit to a big spend, check RaiseRight first.

Big purchase checklist:

Search RaiseRight for the brand or retailer

Check the earnings percentage — some brands run bonus promotions

Buy the gift card(s) before you make the purchase

For online purchases, many brands let you stack RaiseRight gift cards with online earnings through the RaiseRight browser extension

Share the opportunity — if friends or family are also spending at that retailer, they can enroll too

Pro tip: Install the RaiseRight browser extension to earn on online purchases at 100+ retailers — on top of gift card earnings.

The Reloadable Card Strategy

For your most frequent stores

For the stores you visit every single week — grocery, gas, coffee — order a reloadable physical card. Keep it in your wallet right next to your credit cards. When the balance gets low, reload it from the app. You earn every time you reload, and the card never expires.

Over 125 brands offer reloadable cards, including Walmart, Target, Shell, Starbucks, Kroger, Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Amazon.

Watch: Enroll in Under 60 Seconds

Krystal walks you through the whole process on her phone

The whole process takes about 60 seconds: download the RaiseRight app, enter our enrollment code, link a payment method, and buy your first eGift card. Krystal shows you each step so there are no surprises.

Prefer to read? The RaiseRight enrollment page walks you through it step by step. Our enrollment code is on the main Retail Charity page.

The best time to start was yesterday. The second best is now.

Your very next purchase can start earning for the animals.

Get Your Enrollment Code