Fun For The Good | Blog #3

Can side hustles give you extra cash to support charities and your community?

The saying “charity begins at home” feels more relevant than ever. But could I use side hustle money to support good causes? Let’s find out…

Images from websites and Play Store (links below)

According to UK Fundraising, Charities Aid Foundation found fewer people are donating to charity, despite record amounts being given.

It found that many charities are relying on regular donors and the money they are receiving isn’t having as much impact as it used to because of inflation.

I suspect this change in giving habits is down to the cost of living. Although many of us would love to support charities more, with everyday essentials continuing to go up, the saying “charity begins at home” feels more relevant than ever.

However, this did get me thinking about ways I could make money on top of my regular income and whether I could use it towards charities and community projects I care about.

This led me down the rabbit hole of online ‘side hustles’.

What’s a side hustle, you ask? Well, essentially it’s making additional money outside of your main income.

Now, if you Google ‘best online side hustles’, you’ll see grand statements about earning £100s every month in your spare time. So, with the saying “if something seems too good to be true…” ringing in my ears, I decided to investigate some of the many opportunities proposed.

And the outcome after two and a half months? I actually made some money. Not the £100s I was promised and it’s definitely taken more than a little of my free time, but it was doable.

So, I thought I’d share some of the ways I’ve made some extra money (and do read until the end to find out what charity memberships my side hustle earnings could pay for).

**A couple of warnings before you start**

The below are not recommendations, just reviews of my experience.
You need to be over 18 to do these side hustles.
If you’re thinking about committing to any of these, please always do your own research, particularly around data collection and privacy.
You should consider any tax implications or impacts on benefits if you decide to earn extra money.
Create a new email account before signing up to websites, as you will receive a lot of emails.
To benefit from some offers, you need to spend money (e.g. make an in-app purchase on a game, receive £x back). Be careful with this – if it doesn’t track, you could be out of pocket.
I have included referral links for some of the sites I used. If you use them to sign up, I will get a small amount of commission once you’ve cashed out. Obviously, only use these if you feel comfortable and I’ve pointed out where you can make money without using the referral link.

And on a serious note, if you’re struggling financially, there is support available. Money Saving Expert has a list you might find helpful.

WeAre8

Image from Play Store

WeAre8 is a social media site that “unites people to change the world”. Essentially a friendlier TikTok, it combines positive content with the opportunity to earn a little bit (and I do mean a little bit) of money by reviewing video ads from brands.

For each ad you watch and answer a short survey on, WeAre8 pays you and donates some money to charity.

How much can you earn? I generally earned about 5p per ad.

Is it quick to make money? No, the pay rate is low and I only got a few ads per week.

How much have I made in 2.5 months? £2.01.

Positives? Ads are only short and generally from brands you’d know (Flora, UK Government). You can cash out after you’ve earned £1 (but there is a % deduction from PayPal).

Negatives? There weren’t that many videos and cash isn’t available instantly because you need to wait for the advertisers to pay WeAre8.

Minimum cash out amount? £1.

How do you get paid? Paypal.

Would I use it again? If I have a few minutes spare I’d check to see if there were any ads. You don’t make a lot but it’s easy and you can make money for yourself and for charity at the same time.

Prograd

Image from Prograd

Prograd was the first proper ‘side hustle’ website I used. You make money by registering for things like survey sites, free trials, playing games and finance apps.

Prograd has changed a lot since I started. Initially, you would have ‘drops’ of ways to earn money every couple of hours and it had an educational side to it, offering free elearning on topics like budgeting, credit scores and Crypto.

Now, it just presents options all on one page and the educational options aren’t so obviously accessible.

But you can make money quickly – at least initially. Each task tends to have a number of steps to complete but you usually get paid for each step.

For example, you could earn £1.20 by registering with another side hustle site, Custard (more on this site later). This is made up of:

10p for clicking the Prograd Earn button
10p for signing up to Custard
40p when you reach a £5 balance with Custard
80p when you reach a £20 balance

Prograd sometimes gives you the option to review the sites you’ve used and that can make you a little more money.

How much can you earn? Some tasks can pay as little as £1, with others offering £100s (but these are often gaming tasks that will take effort to do).

Is it quick to make money? Initially. Little tasks add up quickly and I didn’t find it hard to meet the minimum cash out amount. However, new tasks only come out a few times a month, so your earning potential can really slow down.

How much have I made in 2.5 months? £45.85.

Positives? It’s a really easy site to use, tasks tend to be paid instantly and the customer service team respond quickly. Even if you don’t want to do a task, you often get 10p just for clicking the link and that can add up quickly.

Negatives?

Sometimes things don’t track so you could do a task and not get paid.
There aren’t many new tasks once you’ve blasted through what’s there.
You may not want to complete every task.
If you’re doing a game, always check it’s still listed as sometimes they can remove an offer and you could be spending time on something you’ll no longer get paid for.

How do you get paid? Paypal.

Minimum cash out amount? £15.

Would I use it again? I would.

Cheddar

Image from Play Store

Cheddar is a cashback app that links to your bank account. When you want to pay for purchases at some shops (e.g. Tesco) you buy an instant gift card through Cheddar and you receive instant cashback.

How much can you earn? Unlimited, really, if you use it consistently when doing your shopping.

Is it quick to make money? Yes, if you use it a lot for your shopping, particularly with shops that pay a higher percentage cashback rate.

How much have I made in 2.5 months? £21.47 (I could have earned more if I didn’t do my food shop with Tesco, which only allows cashback on instore purchases).

Positives? It’s very quick and easy to use.

Negatives?

You only make money if you spend money (but it would only be on things you’re buying anyway).
You need to feel comfortable linking your bank account because the app can see all your transactions.
You also need to feel comfortable taking an extra few minutes at checkout to get the gift card.
Not every store is on Cheddar, although it looks like more are being added.
Some shops are instore purchases only.

How do you get paid? It goes straight to your bank account when you request it.

Minimum cash out amount? £5.

Would I use it again? I would.

Referral link | Use code HAAPFQD. You will receive £2 to your cashback total when you make your first purchase within 14 days of sign up. I will then receive £2.

Custard

Image from Custard

Much like Prograd, Custard also offers money for things like registering for survey sites, free trials and playing games. I signed up through Prograd but you can do it directly.

How much can you earn? Some tasks can pay less than a £1 but, again, the bigger money lies in playing games.

Is it quick to make money? Yes, initially. Little tasks quickly add up but unlike Prograd, many of these take time to validate, so you could be waiting up to 30 days for earnings to become payable.

How much have I made in 2.5 months? £28.25.

Positives? It’s fairly easy to use and there are a mix of offers.

Negatives?

Money takes time to validate.
Tracking isn’t always the best so you could do a task and not get paid (I found this happened a lot with games if you’d been playing them a while).
If you’ve used other side hustle sites (like Prograd) you’ll start to notice similar offers, which you can’t do again.

Minimum cash out amount? £10.

How do you get paid? Bank transfer or Paypal.

Would I use it again? I would.

Referral link | I will earn £5 when you cash out at £10. But Prograd did have an offer for Custard, so don’t use the referral link if you want to do that, as only I benefit.

Branded Surveys

Image from Play Store

There are loads of survey sites, all clamouring to pay you a few pennies to give them your views.

I found Branded Surveys (which I downloaded through Prograd but you can download it directly) to be one of the easier and more consistent sites to use, with less examples of being ‘screened out’ after spending time filling in questions and then getting nothing for your troubles.

Survey sites are my least favourite way to make money because you ‘re giving a lot of your personal data away, so if you do them, you need to feel comfortable with that.

How much can you earn? Limitless but it will probably be slow progress, unless you’re doing them constantly.

Is it quick to make money? Not really. Most surveys only pay a little amount (think something like 10p-£1) and can take a long time to do. But if you consistently do them you will make money.

How much have I made in 2.5months? £16.47.

Positives? Surveys are available regularly and offer a variety of points to time options. If you do short surveys with higher point rewards you’ll make money quicker.

Negatives?

You’re sharing a lot of personal data.
Surveys don’t pay a lot for the time you put in.
You’re not always eligible or the survey is full.
Sometimes they don’t complete and you lose all your points.

Minimum cash out amount? 500 points (£3.95 (I’m pretty sure it was £4.50 when I started)).

How do you get paid? PayPal or gift card

Would I use it again? I would.

Freecash

Image from Play Store

I downloaded Freecash through Prograd (but you can do it directly) and have found I can make some money through playing games. The amount of money you make vs effort does vary and some apps are absolutely loaded with adverts.

Gaming apps “pay to play” for a number of reasons, including increasing their download numbers, having users to watch their sponsors’ ads and the potential that users might make in-app purchases.

How much can you earn? Unlimited but it will take effort.

Is it quick to make money? Yes and no – some games offer you money for playing on them for a couple of minutes or for a certain number of days. Others require you to complete levels to make money.

How much have I made in 2.5 months? £14.22.

Positives? If you like playing games, you can make a little money doing it.

Negatives?

Money isn’t always available straight away.
Some games require a lot of work to make not a lot of money.
Many offers are time limited (e.g. reach level 20 in 30 days for £1.50).
You can lose money on some cash out options.

Minimum cash out amount? £5 (it might be higher if you got a joining bonus).

How do you get paid? PayPal (there’s a % fee), gift cards, Crypto.

Would I use it again? I would.

Referral link | I get commission if you make money and you may get a sign up bonus, too. But Prograd did have an offer for Freecash, so don’t use the referral link if you want to do that, as you can’t do both.

So, how much have I made overall in 2.5 months.

£142.27. This includes £14 from two sites (OhMyDosh and GfK MediaView) that are closed (or will be closing).

I’ve thought about ways I could use the money to support good causes.

Obviously you could donate cashed out money to a charity of your choice or spend it on your favourite community projects.

Or you could consider an annual membership that supports a charity.

As an example, with £142.27, I could pay for at least one of these annual memberships (many also offer discount codes, so you could pay less than the below):

Art Fund | National Art Pass | Double card (2 adults at same address) + Plus Kids | £139
English Heritage | Family membership (2 adults and up to 12 children) | £126
National Trust | Family membership (1 adult and children) | £103.80 Read my review of National Trust for families.
RHS | Joint membership (2 members, a family guest and up to 4 children) | £118
The Royal British Legion | Up to seven annual memberships | From £20

So, would you want to earn money to spend in your community doing side hustles?

Do you think it’s a good way to have a bit of extra cash to support charities or your community without impacting on your main income? Or perhaps you’d prefer to support them in other ways, like volunteering?

Let me know on social media by tagging Steph Martin Creative on LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

If you think Steph Martin Creative (that’s me!) can help your business, charity or community-focused organisation with their communications, please drop an email to hello@stephmartincreative.com.

Read my other blog posts

Updated 2 July 2025.

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