SILICON VALLEY, Calif., Oct. 15, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — AffiliateTraction (http://www.affiliatetraction.com/), the world's largest affiliate marketing agency, has increased its charitable portfolio with the addition of UNICEF UK and World Vision Canada. The organizations are the latest additions to an expanding effort intended to foster a corporate conscience in a retail industry driven largely by profit.
Greg Shepard, CEO of AffiliateTraction, expressed enthusiasm about continuing to expand pro-bono efforts to benefit charities that provide humanitarian relief, medical research, environmental advocacy and more. According to Shepard, "There are many charities that are important to me and I wanted to create a sustainable method of giving to them. My goal was to generate revenue outside of the traditional donation drive by doing what we do best, affiliate marketing. By leveraging our capabilities, we help them grow their online revenue by selling their merchandise through the affiliate channel. Everyone at AffiliateTraction feels good about donating their time and talents to help truly great causes."
AffiliateTraction's main revenue driver for charities involves promoting online stores that sell branded merchandise designed to increase awareness of organizations' causes. In addition to UNICEF UK and World Vision Canada, the charities already benefitting from this effort include the American Heart Association, Autism Speaks, and eParks. So far, AffiliateTraction has generated over $238,000 in sales benefitting non-profit organizations and has done so without charging service fees. Nigel Fisher, Head of Trading for UNICEF UK, is optimistic about working with AffiliateTraction: "UNICEF relies entirely on voluntary donations, fundraising activities and revenue generated from its online shop to help save and improve the lives of vulnerable children around the world. UNICEF UK believes that the affiliate channel is a source for targeting new buyers and incremental revenue and are delighted to work with AffiliateTraction to grow this marketing channel."
Greg Shepard attributed the success of AffiliateTraction's charitable initiative with the approach the company takes for non-profit clients. According to Shepard, the same best practices are used to build the affiliate channels for online stores benefitting non-profits that are used for paying clients. He stated that there is no difference in the level of service they receive to ensure that AffiliateTraction is giving what it can to the world community as a socially and environmentally conscious company.
Alec Elbert, Chief Strategy and Development Officer at Autism Speaks provided support for AffiliateTraction's assertions based on his experience with the company thus far: "AffiliateTraction has helped us increase our online sales through the affiliate channel. It's a sustainable way of generating incremental revenue to help us with our mission to support the autism community. Their generosity has helped us expand our eStore and every purchase from this store allows Autism Speaks to continue its search for the causes and most effective education for Autism."
In addition to providing affiliate marketing services for charitable organizations, AffiliateTraction also works closely with several online publishers such as GoodShop, Easyfundraising, Give as you Live, and We-Care that give back a portion of the commission they earn promoting AffiliateTraction clients to select charitable organizations. AffiliateTraction staff work diligently to secure advertising placements on these sites in order to grow client revenue while also benefitting important causes.
AffiliateTraction staff members also retain the right to volunteer for charitable organizations on paid company time two days a year, and while this effort is less likely to have an impact comparable to the company's marketing efforts, Shepard stressed that giving each staff member the opportunity to personally experience charitable service gave them a vested ethical interest in the company's ongoing initiative.
About AffiliateTraction
AffiliateTraction is a full-service performance marketing agency that specializes in incubating, managing and growing affiliate marketing channels for top brands and internet retailers. It is the largest and most well established multi-national affiliate marketing agency in the world with offices in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. AffiliateTraction's clients include global brands and retailers as well as flagship regional merchants who value exceptional affiliate and network quality standards and a focused dedication to affiliate channel management.
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