For at least a couple of years now, Amazon has had a program where when you use the Smile Amazon link instead of the normal link, they would donate a portion (.5%) of your purchase to a charity which you specify. Recently, purchases made through the app became eligible as well. Is there any downside to this? I can’t think of anything other than perhaps some people might donate less on their own if they feel that their Smile donations are sufficient.
That’s how we shop. Doesn’t increase the price for us, our charity gets money that’s needed. (Fights human trafficking). We don’t really change other charitable giving so no big deal.
I’ve been using Smile for so long now I don’t remember when I started.
As the Executive Director of a very small non-profit that encourages people to name us as their charity, and as a frequent Amazon shopper who always uses Smile, I haven’t seen a single disadvantage for either the purchaser or the donee.
We don’t get much money via Smile, just $50 or so here and there, but every penny helps! I encourage everyone to use the system.
I’ve been using it for a few years and haven’t noticed any disadvantages.
I’ve been using it for a couple years as well and haven’t noticed any disadvantages. I suppose one potential problem, if you care about that sort of thing, is that Amazon is collecting tons of data about peoples’ charitable preferences.
Especially now when my finances are tight, I’m glad the toilet paper I buy on Amazon contributes even a little to my selected charity.
I wonder what use they’d make of that information. I switch my “charity” frequently, although for a while now I’ve been giving money to help support a comedy podcast.
My experience is exactly like CairoCarol’s (although i was Treasurer rather than Executive Director). The charity I support has received $14.37 from my spending since I started with Amazon Smile, and a total of $289.07 from all shoppers since the program began. This is less than 1/10 of 1% of that charity’s annual budget but free money is always good.
The only disadvantage to AmazonSmile is that you always have to do your shopping through Amazon Smile. If you click on an affiliate link from a website, it won’t bring you to an AmazonSmile page, so the resulting purchase won’t count. Furthermore, not all goods on Amazon generate Amazon Smile donations.
I’ve been using it ever since the program started. I support ASPCA. I can’t think of one thing that would be a disadvantage. It makes me feel great that the ASPCA is getting a little extra help.
I’ll add that during the pandemic, we’re ordering some of our groceries from Whole Foods. When ordered with Amazon Smile, this counts toward our donation.
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I wonder what use they’d make of that information.
[/quote]Obviously, Amazon will turn around and offer to sell that list of supportive people to other ‘similar’ charities.
So if you support ASPCA, Amazon will sell your name to the Humane Society of the US, etc. And they can also hit up the local animal shelters, rescue operations, etc., charging very high prices because: 1) you are a known donor to animal causes, and 2) you are located nearby (Amazon has your delivery address, of course).
Only a disadvantage if you don’t want these other organizations hounding you for donations.
In the 3+ years I’ve been using Smile, I’ve never been hounded by ASPCA or anything related. Come to think of it, I haven’t been hounded by anyone for donations in a long time other than the address labels I receive from St. Jude’s and the vets.
I’ve heard that Amazon, and other large corporations that facilitate charitable giving, like Facebook, claim all those donations as their own at tax time and get lucrative deductions for it. I don’t know how true that is, but it’s the only downside I can think of.
Companies with a large on-line presence (or even a small on-line presence) pay for web traffic. They pay for links on google or facebook, have affiliate programs, etc. You can never get to Amazon Smile via Google - you have to type it into your URL bar (or have a bookmark or click on a link another regular person sent you.) That means Amazon doesn’t pay for that traffic. Amazon loves not paying for traffic (which costs money, obviously, but also gives Google a chance to intercept some of their traffic and send it elsewhere.) Therefore, Amazon would like to train you to type ‘smile.amazon.com’ into the URL bar rather than go through Google. They’ll even pay a slightly smaller amount to a charity of your choice to get you to do that!
And yeah, it’s deductible for them. Paying Google, etc, is also deductible as a bona fide business expense.
There’s no downside, unless you’d rather Google have the money rather than your favorite charity.
I’ve never been hounded by requests for donations as a result of giving through Amazon Smile.
Why shouldn’t they, seeing as how it’s Amazon’s money that’s getting donated?
FWIW I’ve been doing Amazon Smile pretty much since it started (however many years ago that was) and have never gotten a single call/email/letter from my selected charity (or related one).
Well, if people who opt in pay the same price, then it IS the corporation making the donation. So they would get the equivalent of a deduction in the sense that if they are giving away part of the proceeds, that really does reduce their profits, so of course they would not be paying tax on non-existent profits. Why would you think that’s lucrative, unreasonable, or a downside?
It could be an ethical problem only if they are somehow gaining economic value indirectly as a result of the donations, and not just in the general sense of people preferring to do business with a company that makes these donations. I find it hard to believe that the data yield is worth much.
You guys are right, of course, Amazon is the one making the donations for Smile. (Except in the sense that they could have charged me less, but chose to donate part of the purchase price instead. But that’s their call.)
I was thinking more of Facebook’s “your friend started a fundraiser for X” feature that nags you to donate. I’ve donated a couple times and that is my money, so I’d be miffed if Facebook gets out of paying its fair share of taxes because of my donation.
Ditto. If Amazon is selling my name to charitable organizations, it’s very subtle.
OTOH, I’ve been using Smile for about two years now and the total sum donated to my selected charity is a little under five-bucks. Don’t let using Smile get in the way of doing some actual contributions on your own.