Looking for a way to make holiday shopping (or shopping anytime of year) more meaningful? Amazon.com, one of the top online shopping destinations in the world, has set up a sister website called AmazonSmile to help make charitable giving as easy as purchasing a birthday gift. The website smile.amazon.com lets customers enjoy the same wide selection of products, low prices, and convenient shopping features as on Amazon.com. The difference is that when customers shop on AmazonSmile, the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases to the charitable organizations selected by customers.
Is Smile.Amazon.com the Same As Amazon.com?
AmazonSmile has all the same products and prices as the regular site and the navigation and layout are the same. There are some products that are not eligible to count towards charity donations. Those items are marked and you can still purchase them, so you’ll never need to make two “shopping trips.” They are not the same website, though, and you must shop through smile.amazon.com to make the charitable donation.
Does Amazon Take a Percentage of the Gift?
No. There are no financial transaction fees for the Maurer Foundation. And the website is operated by the AmazonSmile Foundation, which is funded by Amazon, so no part of your donation will go towards running the site either. The full 0.5% of your purchase will go straight to the Maurer Foundation.
How Do I Get Started?
Visit smile.amazon.com. When first visiting AmazonSmile, you’ll be prompted to select a charitable organization from almost one million eligible organizations. Choose the “Maurer Foundation” from the list. In order to browse or shop at AmazonSmile, you must first select a charitable organization. Once you’ve successfully chosen your charity, your charity will be displayed across the top of the site. To change your charity, click on the charity at the top and the click on the “Change Charity” button. To track how much in donations your purchases have generated to your favorite charity, you can visit the same page.
A great way to remember to always shop at smile.amazon.com instead of amazon.com is to set a bookmark in your browser or replace your existing amazon.com bookmark with the new URL. Whenever you visit smile.amazon.com in the future, the site will remember your charity preference an automatically donate to the Maurer Foundation when you make a purchase.
Small donations add up! With your help and the help of all our supporters during the holiday shopping season (and beyond!), we can raise money to help fund the breast health programs we present to schools and community groups throughout the Long Island area. Register for AmazonSmile today!