Frequently Asked Questions

At the point of purchase, the local business member captures the spend amount and card number of the kiimby related transaction. Since kiimby knows the card holders selected non-profits from their kiimby.com profile and the business members contribution percentage from their kiimby.com profile, we are able to calculate the micro-donation amount. Once per month, the local business member is sent an invoice for that month's kiimby related transactions, and then the business member's checking account is sent an automatic bank draft request for the aggregated amount of micro-donations and fees for that month.

At the point of purchase/checkout, a kiimby member presents their kiimby card to you. There are three ways your business might be set up to accept the kiimby card. They are:

1) The most common way is entering transactions via the transaction web form from your kiimby account web page, and you have a USB card swiper that is connected to your internet enabled computer at the checkout counter. In this case, you first open the transaction entry web form by clicking on the link at your online kiimby dashboard. Second, you type in the transaction amount in the Amount field. Third, you place the cursor in the card number field, and swipe the card. If the transaction does not submit automatically, hit the Submit button.

2) You enter transactions via the transaction web form from your kiimby account web page, and you do NOT have a USB card swiper that is connected to your internet enabled computer at the checkout counter. In this case, you open the transaction entry web form by clicking on the link at your online kiimby dashboard, please the cursor in the card number field, and type the last six (6) digits from the back of the customers kiimby card.. You then enter the sale amount and click submit.

3) You have kiimby's loyalty software is installed on your credit card terminal or POS (Point of Sale) system. In this case, you swipe the kiimby card and enter the transaction as your would any other type of card transaction. Note: the kiimby transaction is not a financial transaction.

Your kiimby member profile, which you can access when logged in to your account at www.kiimby.com, is where you are able to select your supported non-profits, manage your privacy settings, update your personal info (e.g., email, name, username, etc.), among other things.

Once logged in, you can always access your member profile by clicking on the "Member Profile" link in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

In order to accept micro-donations through the kiimby network, a nonprofit must be a 501(c)3 or be affiliated with the Austin Community Foundation. Micro-donations collected for designated member non-profits through the kiimby network are distributed at either the point the aggregated micro-donations total $100 for a given member non-profit, or once per calendar year quarter based on which event occurs first. In the case of quarterly distributions, aggregated micro-donations are distributed on the last day of the quarter, and are sent to the address on file with kiimby.

The reason we distribute micro-donations only at these thresholds is because there is a processing cost in the form of time for both writing and depositing checks. It wouldn't be helpful for our member non-profits if we were to regularly send them checks for just a couple of dollars, because of the time it would take them to deposit those checks.

The kiimby community is about helping make Austin a stronger and more vibrant community, and the non-profit sector plays a vital role in that process. To that end, kiimby aims to include non-profits in the community that dedicate 70% or more of their funds to helping the greater Austin community. For example, both “Meals and Wheels and More” and “Goodwill Industries of Central Texas” are affiliated with national organizations, but squarely have their focus on the greater Austin community. When we say “local focused non-profits” this is what we mean.

The kiimby community was recently launched with a handful of nonprofits and we are still in the testing process. At this time, we are not actively adding additional non-profits as members, but we will keep our users posted when this changes. If you are interested in having one of your favorite local oriented non-profits added to the kiimby community, please let us know by clicking on the “Contact Us” at the bottom of this page.

The kiimby community is a network of like-minded individuals, local businesses and local focused non-profits that are committed to building a strong and vibrant local community we know as Austin! All non-profits in the kiimby community have their focus within Austin, and as such, it is not possible to support a non-profit organization in another community.

The short answer is the member business determines the percentage micro-donation. The reason kiimby provides the member business the ability to determine the percentage is because each business is different. Some businesses operate on higher margins than others. Some businesses generate more cash, but less margin than others. The reality of one business is rarely the same as another when you look under the hood.

This is especially true for local businesses that don't have a central corporate office located off in some anonymous place to fall back on for operations support. The reality is local business owners and employees almost always wear many, many hats in running their businesses, which is one of the reasons why they have so much more character and authenticity than large corporations. They don't just crank widgets. They do it all! It takes so much passion and love to do what they do.

Because of these difference between businesses, there is no practical or effective way for kiimby to standardize the percentage micro-donation give across all businesses that are kiimby business members.

You can select up to 3 non-profit organizations to direct micro-donations to that are generated when using your registered kiimby card while shopping at member businesses. The micro-donations generated will be distributed evenly across your selected non-profits. For example, one selection gets 100%, two selections are split 50/50, and three selections split 1/3-1/3-1/3.

Hopefully, this doesn't happen, but we all know we all forget things exactly when we don't want to, or at least, isn't that how it always seems to work?

In this event, don't fret, because you can ask the member business to look up your kiimby card number by using the email address you used when you registered with kiimby. Although, please understand if things are particularly busy at that time, it might be difficult for them to do the look up.

We have tried to make it fast and easy for the business to look you up, but if they have customers lined up out the door, so to speak, it might be a little tough for them. Just know they want to help make sure the micro-donation gets to your non-profits a lot, because as local business folks, they also live, work and raise families in our community. They care, and they care a lot. Otherwise, they wouldn't be kiimby member business in the first place!

No, the kiimby card is not a purchase card. The best way to think about the kiimby card is as a high powered community loyalty card that makes it easy and fun to discover and show your support for the local businesses and non-profits that help build the unique character and vibrancy of our community, while at the same time earning you kiimby points that can be redeemed for access to exclusive community events, activities and offers.

The kiimby card is an easy and fun way for you to shop at and support wonderful local businesses, while at the same time generating micro-donations for your favorite local focused non-profits and kiimby points for yourself. When you use your kiimby card while shopping at a member business, that business takes a small percentage the sale and directs it through kiimby's micro-donation engine to the non-profits you have selected in your kiimby member profile at www.kiimby.com. In addition, you earn kiimby points, which are generally awarded at a one-to-one ratio on dollars spent at the business. For example, a $50 purchase at a member business would typically generate 50 kiimby points.

Yes, this can easily be done whenever you would like from the "Supported Non-profits" section under your "Profile Settings" tab. To change your selected non-profits, follow these simple steps:

1) Make sure you're logged in
2) Click on the "Profile Settings" tab found under your "Member Profile"
3) Scroll down and look for the "Support Non-profits" section and click on it
4) Highlight the non-profit(s) you would like to add from the pick list
5) Click on the "Add" button found to the right of the pick list

Note: You are limited to three (3) supported non-profits. So, if you already have three selected and would like to add another, you have to first remove one by clicking on the "Remove" button in the "Your Selection" box.

The micro-donations generated with your kiimby card are not tax deductible for you. That is because the donation is actually being made by the member business where you are shopping. You are simply telling the business where you want them to make the donation, but the donation is actually coming from them.

For example, if a given member business has defined a 6% mico-donation on kiimby card transactions, that means they are taking 6% of the sales price they are charging you and directing it to the non-profit(s) of your choice.

Unfortunately, the answer is "No." That's because with an unregistered card, we don't know that it's your card, and therefore, can't assign kiimby points to your membership profile. If you're card is unregistered, we also can't direct the micro-donations generated by you using your card at a member business to your favorite non-profits since we don't know where you would like them to go.

In short, if you want to earn kiimby points and generate micro-donations for your favorite non-profits, be sure to register your card by clicking on "Register" in the upper right portion of the page.

We are particularly excited about how we determine kiimby's monthly featured non-profit. We have a killer partnership with Austin Involved, which is itself a kiimby member non-profit. Austin Involved is a wonderful organization that gives Austinites a chance to Discover, Do and Donate in meaningful ways as a cohesive group, the way we and our friends would want to do it. Each month, all the members of Austin Involved vote on a featured non-profit where they want their monthly membership contribution to go, and then they volunteer several hours to help out that non-profit all on one day towards the end of the month. In other words, they put their time where they put their money...'cause it ain't only about money when it comes to building a strong community! You also gotta get your hands dirty to make things better!

We, as in kiimby, simply map to the monthly supported non-profit the members of Austin Involved have voted to support. This is also how we determine where the aggregated monthly micro-donations should go that were generated from unregistered kiimby cards.

You should definitely check out Austin Involved at www.austininvolved.org Oh, and by the way, both DA and GK, kiimby's founders are members of Austin Involved also.

Yes, but only if the kiimby card is unregistered. With unregistered kiimby cards, we don't know which non-profits that kiimby member wants to receive the micro-donations generated from the transaction. So , we needed to figured out a way to determine which non-profits should get the micro-donations on the unregistered kiimby card transaction.

That's why we came up with the idea of having a monthly featured non-profit. The short of it is if you want to make sure your favorite non-profit(s) receive the micro-donations you generate by using your kiimby card at a member business, be sure to register you card and select your favorite non-profits in the "Supported Non-profits" section under your "Profile Settings" tab.

Yes, you can use an unregistered kiimby card at a kiimby member business. Although, with all unregistered kiimby card related transactions the micro-donations will not go to any non-profits of your choice, since the card is still unregistered. If you have not already registered your card and selected the non-profits you want to support, we will direct any micro-donations generated with the unregistered card to the monthly featured non-profit.