If you love shopping with Amazon and love supporting charitable organizations, you’ll love the new AmazonSmile program.
It’s simple:
For every purchase you make using AmazonSmile — eligible products are marked on their detail pages “Eligible for AmazonSmile donation” — Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price to the charitable organization of your choice.
How cool is that!?!
AmazonSmile
Started by Amazon, this cool new way to support nonprofits is easy to do. Once you’re all signed up and have the charitable organization picked, all you have to do is make sure you’ve added a smile to your Amazon shopping experience: http://smile.amazon.com.
If you need to, create a special browser bookmark to make sure you never forget. 🙂
As for the number of charities to choose from, there’s a crap load. Seriously. You can choose from almost one million eligible 501(c)(3) public charitable organizations!
For those interested in adding your 501(c)(3) public charitable organization, go to org.amazon.com to learn how to register to receive donations. According to Amazon, these are the current eligibility requirements for charitable organizations to participate:
“Organizations must be registered and in good standing with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) to be eligible to participate. Organizations must be public charitable organizations (not private foundations) and may not be supporting organizations, unless identified specifically as a Type I, Type II, or functionally integrated Type III supporting organization. Eligible charitable organizations must also be located in one of the 50 U.S. states or the District of Columbia. Organizations that engage in, support, encourage, or promote intolerance, hate, terrorism, violence, money laundering, or other illegal activities are not eligible to participate. Amazon relies on the US Office of Foreign Asset Compliance and the Southern Poverty Law Center to determine which registered charities fall into these groups. Charitable organizations must also adhere to the AmazonSmile Participation Agreement to maintain eligibility. Charitable organizations may choose not to participate in AmazonSmile at any time. Although we aim to include only charitable organizations that are in good standing and do not engage in any of the activities described above, we cannot guarantee the good standing and/or conduct of any charitable organization. For complete details, see the AmazonSmile Participation Agreement.”
According to these guidelines, I would think that many churches, ministries and nonprofit organizations would qualify.
Learn more, sign up, and starting shopping with a smile. 🙂
Chris says
Yes, this is a good thing. Although here in the UK we have been using easyfundraising.org.uk to raise funds for reflexcreativearts.co.uk which includes Amazon purchases and many other online retailers. It’s a great way of raising funds!
Eric Dye says
Cool! Thanks for the link and info Chris!
Frank Ramage says
I was pleasantly surprised to see our church in the list of donors… The big question I have is, “If I start at smile.amazon.com, am I charged more for the same product?”
If yes, then thanks, but I’ll give my money directly–not by paying more for the same thing.
If no, then that’s an awesome gift to non-profits… way to go.
Eric Dye says
No, you are not charged more. 🙂
Adam Riley says
http://www.forafriend.com is one of the organizations that use smile.amazon.com. We have got money from them already too. Thanks to everyone that used it and picked http://www.forafriend.com.
Eric Dye says
That’s cool, Adam!
Sean says
Such an innovative thing. I’m surprised more churches aren’t using it and actively promoting it. I’ve been using this past year or so to support my alma mater and have encouraged pastor friends to get their churches on board.