By Smile, I am referring to Amazon.com's donation program for charitable organizations, called, you guessed it, Smile. Not too long ago, the Ethical Society of Austin completed the rather tedious application (Amazon is careful about additions to the program) to participate in the Smile program as a donation recipient. Now all we have to do is go to our account page on Amazon.com and change the settings to allow part of our purchases to be donated to ESOA.
The amount donated is small, of course: 0.5% of the total purchase price. That's only $0.50 for every $100 spent, but it does mount up over time and with more shoppers. That is, the more of us who sign up for this program--and shop--the more donations will come to ESOA.
This sort of passive giving is becoming more common with businesses that want to be--or appear to be--more ethical and involved in the community ("giving back"). If you choose to shop through Amazon.com, consider taking the active step of signing up for Amazon Smile and designating ESOA as your charity. Depending on your shopping levels, you can make helpful--and needed--contribution to ESOA.
A caveat or two. First, although one does not have to create a new account to sign up for Amazon Smile, it may be necessary to create a bookmark (or equivalent) on your own computer and actively use that bookmark for at least a while to make sure that you are actually shopping through the Smile program. I am not clear that your donations will go to ESOA if you just go to Amazon.com and start shopping. If you do go to smile.amazon.com, you will see a clear indication in the upper left just under the search bar that you are "Supporting: Ethical Society of Austin." If that notation is not there, chances are you are not supporting ESOA with your purchases. Apparently, as I discovered after one largish purchase, the system is not foolproof. *sigh*
Second, well, moderation in all things, y'know?
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