I used to browse through Amazon to find the best deal after brick-and-mortar shopping. Convenience basically determined where I would make my final purchase. This year, however, has seen quite an uptick in my online purchases. (Barbara will ask if something went wrong if she sees the UPS van drive up our street without stopping at our house.) This pandemic has basically dropped the physical store shopping unless it is for essentials. 

What does this have to do with Giving without Giving? When I first heard of AmazonSmile, I initially thought it must be a gimmick. Why would Amazon be willing to donate part of my shopping bill to my designated charity? Surely the prices are increased when you shop through smile.amazon.com instead of just amazon.com. Surely there would be a limit on the items that would quality. Surely the percentage donated would be miniscule.

I have shopped for items through both avenues, smile.amazon.com versus amazon.com, and found no difference in prices. I have shopped for a wide range of products and cannot recall an item in my 108 orders that didn’t qualify. The percentage donated, 0.5% is small but we can’t expect Amazon to give away all their profits and it does add up. Through my orders since 2018, we have donated $45.58 and overall, our Rio Grande Valley Chapter has received $136.67. 

This may not seem like a lot, but it is money that did not come out of my pocket or anyone’s who designated our chapter as their designated charity. What if more members did this? What if I hadn’t mistakenly placed some orders through amazon.com when I wasn’t being careful? 

For those of you that perhaps are a bit curious now about AmazonSmile, I invite you to consider tagging the Rio Grande Valley Chapter Texas Master Naturalist as your charity of choice and begin using smile.amazon.com. However small your purchase might be, all the pennies, nickels, and dimes, will add up.