Words by Smiley Team
Amazon Smile is a brilliant platform that enables you to support your favourite charity every time you shop – without any additional cost.
All you have to do is shop at its separate portal – smile.amazon.com – instead. Don’t worry, you'll find the same Amazon you usually shop at, with the same products and the same prices.
But the one difference is that when you go to checkout, Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of all eligible products to your chosen charity. It’s as easy as that.
[Read More: Why seaweed is vital in the climate crisis]
As of June 2021, UK charities have received more than £9 million through Amazon Smile, and all worldwide charities have received more than £212 million.
Go to the AmazonSmile hub and click "get started." If you already have an Amazon account, you'll be asked to sign in. If you don't have an Amazon account, you will need to set one up.
You start by picking your charity that you’d like to support. You can choose charities from a range of different causes, from ‘culture and heritage’ to ‘environmental and animal’. You’ll then be presented with a list of charities that have signed up to Amazon Smile. All you have to do is select which one you want to support.
Once selected, you’ll be reminded that you need to shop at smile.amazon.co.uk to support that chosen charity. The charity will be linked to your account and you’ll be ready to start shopping.
Charities have to sign up to Amazon Smile themselves to become an option for people to select to support. If you’re not sure if your chosen or favourite charity is registered, it’s recommended that you reach out to them to find out. Many charities promote AmazonSmile on their websites.
[Read More: 5 good news stories you might have missed]
All charities must be a registered public charity to sign up. They just need to sign up on Amazon’s organisation central page. And follow these 5 steps:
:: Search for your charitable organisation by name or registered charity number and then select the organisation you represent. Be sure to confirm you are selecting the correct organisation, as many charitable organisations have similar names.
:: Create an organisation administrator account and accept the AmazonSmile Participation Agreement on behalf of your organisation.
:: Verify your email address (we recommend that you use an email address that is associated with your charitable organisation).
:: Submit your organisation’s bank account information.
:: Upload a copy of a bank statement to verify your organisation’s bank account information.
Image credit: Koshiro K / Shutterstock
