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Update: Amazon has announced that Amazon Smile will be discontinued as of February 20, 2023. In its announcement, Amazon stated, “We will continue to pursue and invest in other areas where we’ve seen we can make meaningful change—from building affordable housing to providing access to computer science education for students in underserved communities to using our logistics infrastructure and technology to assist broad communities impacted by natural disasters.”
What’s more fun than shopping? Doing good when you shop! You can donate to your favorite charity when you shop at Amazon. And donating to your favorite charity won’t cost you any extra.
The AmazonSmile program is a free service that donates a portion of your Amazon purchases to your favorite charity. All you have to do is head to AmazonSmile instead of amazon.com when you shop at Amazon. Then when you make a purchase a portion of the purchase price will be donated to your favorite charity.
Shopping at AmazonSmile is the same as shopping at amazon.com, with one exception: a portion of your purchase goes to the charity you choose. AmazonSmile prices are the same, the shipping is the same, and the products are the same as with amazon.com.
Using AmazonSmile
Getting started with AmazonSmile is easy. By taking a few minutes to choose your favorite charity, you can begin donating when you shop at Amazon.
Choosing a Charity
The first thing you should do with AmazonSmile is choose your favorite charity. Over one million charities participate in the AmazonSmile program.
Go to smile.amazon.com and log in using your Amazon login information. The first time you log into AmazonSmile you will be asked to choose your favorite charity.
You can change your charity at any time. Log into your Amazon account on AmazonSmile, then click on My Account. Choose My AmazonSmile from the drop-down menu.
Click the Change Charity button to choose a different charity.
Your AmazonSmile
At the Your AmazonSmile page you will see the impact you have had by using AmazonSmile. The page shows you:
- the number of purchases you have made using AmazonSmile,
- how much you have donated to your charity, and
- how much your charity has received from all AmazonSmile purchases.
You can also see the total amount AmazonSmile has donated to charities. The most recent figure is: $46,126,473.56, as of February 2017.
You can also read more about the charity you have chosen.
Remembering to Use AmazonSmile Instead of Amazon.com
When you first use AmazonSmile, it may take a while to get in the habit of going to that website instead of going to amazon.com. To make going to AmazonSmile easier to remember, you can set a bookmark and/or use an extension..
On your account page in AmazonSmile, you can drag a bookmark to the toolbar in your browser. Isn’t that easy?
Check out => Bookmark This! to learn more about setting bookmarks.
You can also use this Chrome Extension: Smile Always. Smile Always will automatically send you to AmazonSmile when you try to go to amazon.com.
More About AmazonSmile
— AmazonSmile uses your existing Amazon account. Log into AmazonSmile the same way as you log into your amazon.com account.
— Not all purchases on Amazon are included in AmazonSmile. Subscribe and Save and other subscriptions are not part of the program.
— Look for “Eligible for AmazonSmile donation” on the product page. This will be displayed on products only when you’re on AmazonSmile, not on amazon.com
— If you’re part of a charitable organization that would like to participate in AmazonSmile, go to org.amazon.com to sign up.
— Donations made through AmazonSmile are not tax deductible by you.
— AmazonSmile is only available through the website, not through the Amazon app. You can add items into your shopping cart using the app, then go to the browser on your phone or computer to use AmazonSmile.
— AmazonSmile is not currently available outside the US. If you are outside the US, you can contact Amazon in your country to ask that the AmazonSmile program be added so your country’s charities can benefit from this program.
— If you want to support a charity, also donate directly. Making a significant contribution can take a while on AmazonSmile. For every $1000 you spend, $50 gets donated to your charity of choice. But that’s better than nothing!
You can learn more about AmazonSmile at the AmazonSmile About page.
AmazonSmile is a way to do good in the world with very little effort and no cost on your part.
So why wouldn’t you use AmazonSmile when you shop at Amazon?
Your Thoughts
Have you heard of AmazonSmile? Have you used AmazonSmile to donate to your favorite charity?
Please share your thoughts in the Comments section below. Feel free to leave the name of your favorite charity to inspire others to donate using AmazonSmile.
Jayant Gosain says
Whenever I visit Wonder of Tech, I update myself with a new Amazon update. Amazon Smile is a great initiative by Amazon. This is also good for those people who always wanted to donate but due to some reasons, they walk out from doing the donations. With Amazon Smile, they can donate to their favorite charity with so much ease.
Thank You for updating me.
Carolyn Nicander Mohr says
Hi Jayant, Yes, the tech world is busy this spring and Amazon has been particularly busy. With all of their new announcements, Amazon is bringing us interesting tech. If we want to get this tech, or anything else from Amazon, we can also be giving to our favorite charities when we’re shopping. What a great reason to shop!