Amazon Smile Charity

The service club I belong to participates in this effort. It actually works.

The service club I belong to participates in this effort. It actually works.

Bruce, that's good to know. :)

If you are a United Mileage Plus member there is an app called Mileage Plus X that woks at many retailers including Amazon - you earn 2 miles per dollar on Amazon. You can earn up to 5 miles per dollar.

If you are a United Mileage Plus member there is an app called Mileage Plus X that woks at many retailers including Amazon - you earn 2 miles per dollar on Amazon. You can earn up to 5 miles per dollar.

Christi, I've been doing this as well. I first began using it when we dined at California Pizza Kitchen. The app charged me 3 times! My credit card company resolved the problem very easily, but I still had to deal with calling them, etc. It now seems to work properly and I've received lots of United points via the app.

Okay, not to be a Gloomy Gus or anything, but nothing is free, and any business "giving up" .5% of hard earned profit has to be aware of it and has to make up for it somewhere. The best and most efficient way to give is to give directly to that charity. In the same way that frequent flyer miles are free but are not really free, this program makes the "giver" feel good for donating, but it still has to add to the cost of goods from Amazon. For Amazon it's a means to an end: get people to buy more stuff from them.

Some interesting (imho) reading:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brady-josephson/why-amazon-is-smiling-and_b_4360405.html

https://philanthropy.com/article/Is-It-Immoral-for-Charities-to/152075

Dave, thanks for the articles. I'll still link to smile.amazon because I know it works - even the small amount the charity gets from me. I'll still support my charity of choice directly, but it's nice to know my shopping will help my charity as well - even if it's a small bit.

I do appreciate the articles though. :)

P.S. I wish we could use emojis to emphasize our emotions. Sometimes I think my words come across as sarcastic, but I don't mean them to be that way.

Thanks Pilgrim, none taken! ;-) ;-)

Amazon Smile is such a simple thing - just using smile.amazon.com rather than amazon.com and charities get money - pretty simple and seamless for the shopper. .5% of something is something - 0% of something is nothing. Amazon's revenue in 2015 was 107 Billion - even if just 1 Billion were through Amazon Smile that means 5 million to charity.

I do not use Amazon Smile to feel good nor as a substitute for personal giving - it is just an easy way to channel a few more dollars to worthy organizations. I live in area where the closest shopping mall is an hour to an hour and a half away - I shop mainly on Amazon.

Interesting articles (thanks for posting) but I will continue to use Amazon Smile. Regarding the weblink to amazon, as I recall they have or send you that as soon as you sign up. I just replaced my Amazon Bookmarks with it.

Interesting articles (thanks for posting) but I will continue to use
Amazon Smile. Regarding the weblink to amazon, as I recall they have
or send you that as soon as you sign up. I just replaced my Amazon
Bookmarks with it.

I'm sure they did send me the link when I originally signed up. I now have it bookmarked as well and I won't just type "Amazon" to get to the website. :^)