How to Tell If a "Gives Back" Laundry Brand Really Does

Three detergent brands can each print "10% goes to charity" and send three very different amounts of money. The gap is not in the number. It is in what the number is applied to, whether a real organization is named on the receiving end, and whether a cap quietly stops the giving partway through the campaign.

All three of those are checkable before you buy. This guide shows the arithmetic, the public records you can look up in a few minutes, and the disclosure rules that tell you what a brand is supposed to put in front of you at the moment of sale.

"Percentage of profits" versus "percentage of net sales" versus "a portion of proceeds"

These three phrases look interchangeable in an ad. They are not. Each one applies the same percentage to a different, progressively smaller base.

• Retail price is the sticker price, before any discount. It is the largest base, so it produces the largest give-back for a given percentage.
• Net sales is what the customer actually paid after discount codes, refunds and returns, and it usually excludes shipping and sales tax. The exact definition varies by brand, which is why the definition matters more than the percentage.
• Profit is whatever is left after cost of goods, payment processing, shipping, advertising and overhead. It is the smallest base, and it is the one a shopper has no way to verify, because a private company's margin is not public.
• "A portion of proceeds" names no percentage and no base at all. Nothing can be calculated from it.

The same 10%, three different answers

Here is the arithmetic on a made-up $50 order, with a 15% discount code applied. The figures below are an illustration to show the spread between the three bases. They are not any brand's prices, margins or give-back rate.

Wording on the ad	What the 10% is applied to	Amount to the charity
10% of the retail price	$50.00 sticker price, before the discount	$5.00
10% of net sales	$42.50 actually paid, shipping and tax excluded	$4.25
10% of profits	$5.00 of net profit left on the order	$0.50
A portion of proceeds	Undefined	Cannot be calculated

The retail row and the profit row differ by a factor of ten, and all three of those are truthful uses of the words "10%." The fourth gives you no number to check at all. That spread is the whole reason the base has to be disclosed alongside the percentage.

A practical rule: if a brand states a percentage but will not tell you what it is a percentage of, treat the number as marketing rather than as information. A brand that gives on net sales can say so in one sentence, and a brand that gives on profit usually avoids saying so at all.

Who actually receives the money, and how a shopper can check

A percentage is only half the claim. The other half is the recipient, and that half is a matter of public record in the United States.

Ask for the organization's legal name and its Employer Identification Number (EIN), then look it up in the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search. That single tool covers five separate datasets: the Publication 78 data listing organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions, Form 990 series returns, Form 990-N filings from small organizations, the auto-revocation list of groups that lost exemption for failing to file, and determination letters issued since January 2014.

Three things that search will settle in about two minutes:

• Does the organization exist under that exact name? Similar names are common, and a brand naming a category ("children's charities") rather than an entity has given you nothing to look up.
• Is it currently in good standing? The auto-revocation list exists because organizations do lose exempt status.
• What does its Form 990 show? The 990 is where an organization's own revenue reporting lives, which is the closest a member of the public gets to confirming that corporate money arrived.

Two structures worth telling apart

Some brands give to an independent charity they do not control. Others give to a foundation they founded and staff themselves. Both are legal and both can do real work, but they are not the same arrangement, and only the first involves an outside party with its own board deciding how the money is spent.

Also watch for give-backs paid in product rather than cash. Donating goods is genuinely useful to some organizations. If a give-back is paid in product, ask whether the dollar figure is the retail value of the goods or what they cost to make — the two can differ substantially.

You are the buyer, not the donor

When a brand funds a give-back out of its own sales, the brand is the giver. Your side of the transaction is a purchase. IRS Publication 526 explains that where you receive a benefit in return for a contribution to a qualified organization, only the amount exceeding the value of what you received can be deducted — and in a normal retail purchase you have received full value in goods. Nobody should imply your detergent order is a deductible donation. For your own situation, ask a tax professional.

This is different from an add-a-donation or round-up line at checkout, where you choose to add money on top of the price. There, you are the giver. Keep the two mechanisms separate in your head, because brands sometimes describe them in adjacent sentences.

Why the receiving organization should be named, not implied

The BBB Wise Giving Alliance publishes voluntary Standards for Charity Accountability, and Standard 19 covers cause marketing directly. It asks that any promotion stating or implying that a charity benefits from a consumer purchase disclose, at the point of solicitation, three specific things: the actual or anticipated portion of the purchase price going to the charity, the duration of the campaign, and any maximum or guaranteed minimum contribution.

BBB Wise Giving Alliance has separately noted that some advertisements are not clear on this point and use vague language such as "proceeds" or "profits" going to a charity.

Naming matters for a reason beyond transparency theater. A named organization can be searched, its 990 read, and its board looked up. An unnamed cause cannot be checked by anyone, which means the claim cannot be wrong in any way you could detect. Claims that cannot be falsified are not claims.

The strongest version of this is a program where the shopper picks the organization themselves, because then the recipient is named at the moment of purchase by design rather than by policy.

Point-of-sale disclosure and state charitable-promotion rules

Cause marketing is regulated in the United States, though the rules bind the business and the charity rather than the shopper. In state charitable solicitation law, a for-profit business that advertises that purchases will benefit a charity is generally called a commercial co-venturer, and the promotion is a charitable sales promotion.

California is a useful example because the statute is short and public. Under California Government Code section 12599.2, a commercial coventurer is a person or entity that, for profit, is regularly and primarily engaged in trade or commerce other than fundraising, and that represents that purchases will benefit a charitable organization. Such a business does not have to register with the California Attorney General if it does all of the following:

• keeps a written contract with the charity, signed by two officers of the charity, before the promotion is advertised to the public;
• transfers all funds received to the charity within 90 days of the promotion starting, and every 90 days after that;
• gives the charity a written accounting good enough for the charity to verify that the public representations were accurate.

A business that does not meet those conditions must register with the Attorney General and pay an annual registration fee. California also defines a separate category, the charitable fundraising platform. A business that meets both definitions is treated only as a charitable fundraising platform. The statute carves out one narrow exception: a business that falls within the platform definition solely under subparagraph (D) of Government Code section 12599.9(a)(1) remains a commercial coventurer when its acts of solicitation to people in California are for six or fewer recipient charitable organizations per calendar year and it meets the three conditions above.

Other states set their own bar. Practitioner guidance from Taft Law notes that South Carolina requires commercial co-venturers to file a registration application, and that Massachusetts and Alabama require a bond in the $10,000 to $25,000 range. The one requirement that shows up nearly everywhere is a written contract between the brand and the charity, with the required terms varying state to state.

What this means for you as a shopper: the paperwork exists to make sure someone independent can check the brand's math. You do not need to know your state's filing rules to benefit from them. You just need to know that a legitimate program has a written agreement and a reporting rhythm behind it, and can say so plainly when asked. Check with your own state's attorney general or charity regulator if you want the local detail.

Caps, minimums and end dates hidden in the fine print

The percentage is usually in the headline. The conditions that limit it are usually not. Standard 19's second and third elements — duration, and any maximum or guaranteed minimum — exist precisely because these are where campaigns quietly stop giving.

Caps

"Up to a maximum of $200,000" means the giving stops at $200,000. Every purchase after that threshold contributes nothing to the cause, while the advertising continues to run. Nothing is wrong with a cap in principle, since a company has to be able to budget. What is wrong is a cap disclosed only in a footnote while the headline implies your specific purchase moves money.

Guaranteed minimums

"We will donate at least $50,000" is a floor the brand pays regardless of sales. If the minimum is high relative to what the promotion could realistically generate, the company has effectively made a fixed gift and wrapped a marketing campaign around it. That is not deceptive, but it does mean your individual purchase is not what determines the amount.

End dates

Campaigns run for a stated window, such as a single month. Cause creative often outlives the campaign on social feeds and retail shelves. Check whether the promotion is still running before you buy for the cause.

Per item or per order

"10% of your order" and "10% per item, on qualifying items only" are different. So is a give-back computed before versus after a discount code. If a brand publishes terms, this is the paragraph to read.

Five questions to ask any brand before you buy for the cause

1. What exactly is the percentage applied to? Retail price, net sales, or profit. Ask for the definition, not just the number. If the answer is "proceeds," ask again.
2. Which organization, by legal name and EIN? Then check it yourself in the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search. A brand that cannot produce an EIN has not really named a recipient.
3. Is there a cap, a guaranteed minimum, or an end date? All three are supposed to be disclosed at the point of sale under Standard 19.
4. When does the money actually move, and what does the organization receive to verify it? A statement or accounting on a set schedule is the difference between a program and a slogan.
5. Is this a purchase or a donation, and who is the giver? If a brand implies your retail order is tax-deductible, that is a reason to be more careful about everything else it says.

A brand that has built a real program can answer all five in writing. A brand that answers none of them in writing is asking you to take the cause on faith.

Where Love Brands' Loads of Love program stands

Love Brands makes Love Paks, pre-measured laundry detergent paks sold 39 to a refill pouch. One pak handles a standard load; use two for a large or heavily soiled load. There are two formulas — Citrus Flower Blossom, which is scented, and Dye & Scent Free, which has no dyes and no added fragrance. Both are plant-based, work in warm or cold water, and are made for standard and HE machines. LOVE PAKS is a registered United States trademark, USPTO registration number 8371488.

Held against the five questions above, here is how Loads of Love is structured.

1. What the percentage applies to

The give-back is 20% of net sales from a participating organization's link. That is the middle row of the table at the top of this page — not the retail price, and not profit.

Net sales means what the customer actually paid, so a discount code lowers the give-back and a refund removes it. You can run the arithmetic on any order yourself: take the amount paid for the products, before shipping and tax, and multiply by 0.20. On the illustrative $50 order above, where a 15% code brought the amount paid down to $42.50, the give-back would be $8.50.

2. Which organization

You choose it. Orders placed through a participating organization's link give back to that organization, so the recipient is named at the moment of purchase rather than left to a category. Organizations apply directly through the nonprofit program or the youth sports program. If you already know the group you want to support, start at support an organization.

3. Caps, minimums and end dates

Standard 19 asks for three things at the point of solicitation. The first is the portion of the purchase price, and it is stated above: 20% of net sales. For the duration of a specific partnership, and for any cap or guaranteed minimum that applies to it, ask Love Brands directly and get the answer in writing before you rely on it. Hold us to exactly the standard this page asks you to apply to every other brand: a term that cannot be put in writing has not been disclosed.

4. When the money moves and what the organization gets

The give-back is calculated on net sales from orders placed through the organization's link, so the amount follows real orders rather than a figure promised in advance. If your organization is considering the program, ask two things before you sign: what reporting you will receive, and how often. Get both answers into the written agreement. That is question four on the list above, and it applies to Love Brands the same way it applies to anyone else.

5. Purchase or donation

Your order is a purchase, not a donation. The give-back is paid by Love Brands to the organization you chose, so Love Brands is the giver and you are the customer. Love Brands does not provide tax advice; ask your tax professional about your own situation. A step-by-step walkthrough of the mechanics lives in how the give-back works, and organizations running a campaign can start with our guide to a laundry detergent fundraiser.

The same discipline applies to the product claims

A brand that is precise about its give-back and loose about its product has only moved the problem. The environmental and formulation claims on a detergent deserve the same treatment: a stated basis, a definition, and something a reader can check.

Two of ours, written up the same way: our comparison of biodegradable versus microplastic laundry paks explains what those terms are and are not allowed to mean, and our guide to fragrance-free versus scented covers what "fragrance" actually denotes on an ingredient list. For the product basics, see laundry paks.

One more, for completeness. Love Paks are rose quartz infused. Rose quartz is a pink variety of quartz, and its association with love and care is a long-running cultural tradition, not a demonstrated physical effect; its place in our products is brand philosophy, stated as such. Love Brands makes no health, medical or physiological claim about it. We explain that distinction in full on the rose quartz page.

Find an organization to support.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between "percentage of profits" and "percentage of net sales"?

They apply the same percentage to different bases. Net sales is what the customer actually paid after discount codes, refunds and returns, usually excluding shipping and tax. Profit is what is left after cost of goods, processing, shipping, advertising and overhead, so it is a much smaller base — and a shopper cannot verify it, because a private company's margin is not public. On an illustrative $50 order discounted to $42.50, 10% of net sales is $4.25, while 10% of a $5.00 profit is $0.50.

How do I check that the charity named in an ad is real?

Ask for the organization's legal name and Employer Identification Number, then search the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search. It covers Publication 78 data, Form 990 and 990-N filings, the auto-revocation list of groups that lost exempt status, and determination letters issued since January 2014. If a brand names a category such as "children's charities" instead of an entity, there is nothing to look up.

What has to be disclosed at the point of sale?

BBB Wise Giving Alliance Standard 19 asks that any promotion stating or implying that a charity benefits from a purchase disclose three things at the point of solicitation: the actual or anticipated portion of the purchase price going to the charity, the duration of the campaign, and any maximum or guaranteed minimum contribution. These are voluntary standards. Separately, state charitable solicitation laws regulate the business as a commercial co-venturer, and nearly all of them require a written contract with the charity.

Is my purchase from a brand that donates tax-deductible?

No. When a brand funds a give-back out of its own sales, the brand is the giver and you are a customer. IRS Publication 526 explains that where you receive a benefit in return for a contribution, only the amount exceeding the value of what you received can be deducted, and in a normal retail purchase you received full value in goods. This is different from a round-up or add-a-donation line at checkout, where you add money on top of the price. Ask a tax professional about your own situation.

What percentage does Love Brands give back, and on what?

Loads of Love gives back 20% of net sales from a participating organization's link. Net sales means what the customer actually paid, so a discount code lowers the give-back and a refund removes it. You choose the organization, so the recipient is named at the moment of purchase rather than left to a category. Organizations apply through the nonprofit program or the youth sports program.