In general: Microloan website Kiva (
http://www.kiva.org) also provides a neat gift certificate option like GlobalGiving for people to redeem through their site, minimizing the challenge of distributing a physical good or service across continents.
To Usman's question: Actually I think you pose a more interesting answer in your own question than you might realize. Ignore where you are based, and consider that as long as you have access, you are participating. You should try to think about the relationships you build, and the steps necessary to get what you need. That you may not be able to participate in one shopping channel does not mean that you are unable to market yourself effectively through the relationships at your disposal. That is key to "Web 2.0"
So where does the shopping and the charities come into all this?
I think these tools that are suggested will not offer rewards for every charity. I also do not feel many charities used the last round of tools as effectively as they could either. To be honest, unless they were already large groups with large lists, I think it was a bit of a cheat, because all they did was send out requests to their big fat mailing lists saying "buy from this" and "please do this". That's not marketing, that's begging.
I like what I see and have heard here, because this represents something different. It is forcing charities to actually go outside of their comfort zone, look outside of their mailing lists, and take their case to the larger marketplace.
There is something else going on here that is more exciting. They put greater responsibility for charities to think about "marketing" as an element of their fundraising before they can embrace and realize any genuine value from "gifts" they receive, and make them work harder to sustain the relationships.
Think of it this way. Normally, you have a charity, it has a need or an issue that has to be met. It asks for funding around the issue or the need. When it goes online, it matches products or services that fit that good or need as well.
Excluding ongoing long-term needs, that says nothing about the administrative, operational, or programmatic demands of the organization. Marketing an organization is different than marketing an issue, and this is where charities have faced challenges.
If you look at the broader "web 2.0" discussions and theory and all that talk, it's supposed to be about building relationships and connections and what not. Whether it's the accountability crowd or the affinity crowd or something in between, giving them a seamless relationship through something they would do anyway-- in this case shopping, and more particularly shopping for gifts, for their sweeties, or their friends, or that mean guy you had to give something to anyway in the office-- continues to reinforce the relationships (or gives you an excuse to if you are not doing so already).
At least this is the value I can see. In Web 1.0 everyone complained we bowled alone and shopped alone and this and that. Now in Web 2.0, we do the things those we trust suggest and recommend as well as carry into our online lives the things we do in our offline lives.
The challenge in short is charities need to work harder to identify themselves in order to see gains by using the tools at their disposal. Geography, size, and scale are not the barriers they once were... and may even be more advantageous since you are not locked into any way of thinking.
Sorry for the soapbox...