Amazon has a program called "Amazon Smiles" and how it works is that you can choose any charity that you want to donate to, and when you shop on Amazon, then Amazon will donate a percentage of the amount you spend to that charity. They do not donate a large amount; but it does not cost you anything extra to do this; so it is an easy way to help out any charity that you like when you are buying things that you would buy anyway. This is not like when you go to the store and they ask you if you want to "add a donation" for whatever charity or fundraising campaign. That actually costs you extra money to donate; whereas the Smiles program is totally funded by Amazon, and costs us nothing. Other stores also do this same thing, so you just need to check and see if the store where you shop has that option. I mostly shop at Kroger, and they also have this plan. When we lived in North Carolina, we shopped at a store called Food Lion, and they had this charity donation option as well. If the store where you buy your groceries has a webpage, you can look and see if they have a plan to add your preferred charity and have money donated to it.
Yes, we have grocery stores here that do that like Whole Foods and Harris Teeter. I always say yes when the cashier asks if I want to donate some money because it's no big deal and collectively it can add up to be a big deal. But there was this one time the cashier had an attitude right off, so it turned me off and I said no. She had a stack of boxed pies next to the cash register. It was late at night so I was the only one in line. She: Do you want to buy one of these pies? Me: No thank you. She: Why not? Me: Because I'm watching what I eat and I don't want to eat pie She: But we'll donate part of it to charity Me: No thank you. She: But you don't have to buy the pie…just donate money Me: No thanks She: But EVERYbody is donating Me: Not me, the answer is No She: But I only have to sell one more pie to meet my quota tonight *Slowly* I said: I d-o-n-t w-a-n-t a p-i-e She: Well, fff-ine then *plops my bag down in front of me* I've never had a rude cashier in a grocery store before…never. But I didn't report her because I don't want to be the reason for someone losing their job. You never know what their circumstance is at home, single mom? newborn baby? can't afford milk, maybe just having a bad night, etc. But I never saw her again. It seemed to be her personality, attitude, so someone else must have reported her.
I've donated on amazon.com Smile program. Smile.amazon.com is a fast way to donate to your favorite charity. The charity I've donated to received and they thanked me for the donation. It's easy and like you said costs nothing at all. At smile.amazon.com it's so easy to donate and fast to donate from what you spend. Have you heard of hungersite.com? Hungersite.com is from the United Nations and has different tabs to click daily to help the whole world. Freerice.com is a game to play that wins grains for rice to be donated for the world to end hunger. Freerice.com is also from United Nations. Both are free to join.
I buy a lot from Amazon but had never heard of the smiles program. I go by the rule " nothing is free" though. To stay in business a company has to make a profit. Every expense,( wages, utilities, taxes, and even charitable donations), Must be covered by the prices of the pproducts they sell. Just call me a skeptical old codger.
You make a valid point, Sheldon. I never thought of that. A business can write off their charitable contributions which makes a great tax shelter. So when they ask us for a donation, is this above and beyond their own charitable contributions that they're writing off? But I was aware that a business benefits by giving to charity too. It builds goodwill in the community, enhances customer loyalty, heightens brand awareness, and increases their sales.
The donation that Amazon Smiles makes when you buy from Amazon is not something that is added on to the purchase price, @Lara Moss, like the occurrance that you were describing at the grocery store with the pie sales. Amazon charges the very same price whether you buy something through the regular website or through the Smiles website; so it is the same for the buyer either way. We seem to have store cashiers asking for donations for some charity almost all of the time, too; but I didn't realize that they were giving a quota to fill. This seems like a really bad deal all the way around. The cashiers do not get paid much money in any case, and haveing to fill a quota of donation-sales should not be part of that they have to do to earn that money. On the other hand, maybe the quota-filling means that the cashier gets a bonus of part of the "take" from the donations. Obviously, the store sells a lot more pies than they would otherwise if people are harrassed into buying one to support a charity. I think that the stores would not do this unles they made a commission from the donations; so who knows what amount ever actually reaches anyone who needs help, if any. It is well-known that usually the CEOs of these organizations make a lot of money, and some of the time, very little of what has been donated is actually used to help whatever it is supposed to benefit.. I imagine that Amazon and the grocery stores like Kroger do get a tax write-off for donating some of their profits to charities; however, since I am spending the same amount of money there whether I do or do not choose a charity, I really do not see that it affects the prices that I pay and it does help the charity. Since we can choose the charity we want, (mine goes to our local church food-bank) I don't see how it can go wrong to do this.
Call me an elliptical, cold, dodger...but I still like to write a check and lick a stamp....and mail a donation direct!
@Joe Riley, the Amazon Smile program does not have anything to do with YOU making the donation. Amazon makes the donation ! It just shows that they make it in your name (if I remember right). Here is how it works. When you order from Amazon, instead of going to the regular amazon webpage, go to smile.amazon.com . This takes you to the amazon smile webpage. Sign in just like you always do, and then you choose the charity that you would like amazon to donate to in your name. As an example, mine goes to our local church food bank, but you can choose ANY charity or non-profit organization that you would like the money to go to. Once you have done that, then just go ahead and make your order from amazon just like you always do. Nothing changes. You pay the same prices as you do from the regular website. The difference is that Amazon now sets aside a percentage of the price of your order and they donate to your charity. I think that they do this every few months, so it is not like they send a little bit every time that you order. When Bobby was the director at a small rescue mission in Charlotte (way back when we were first married) we were able to list the mission as a non-profit, and people who supported the mission added it at the Food Lion grocery. Every few months, Food Lion would send us a donation based on the amount that people had spent on groceries at that store (the ones who had listed the mission as their preferrd charity). Since we all buy groceries anyway, and most of us also order from Amazon, it just seems to me to make sense to add on our favorite charity and let amazon give them a donation every few months. Kroger Foods also has this program, and I imagine that many other major grocery chains would have it, too.
The thread's title is a good one, teaching people the trait of generosity. However, some people are averse with donations. I would see them scoff at the Salvation Army in the supermarket entrance asking for alms. In fairness to them, I think charity has a proper place and it should not be forced down on our throat. Even with voluntary donations, it should be literally voluntary in nature. It's hard to explain. We used to give alms to beggars but now we quit that generosity of ours in the streets. Some kids would be roaming around the vehicles during a traffic stop to beg for money. Their spiel is for buying rice or they have no allowance in going to school. In other words, they project a pathetic image so you would give them. And when you do, you are duped because they don't go to school and they use the money for their vices.