Online shopping you can smile about

in Features by

With the simple touch of a button, you can purchase almost anything without ever having to leave the comfort of your home, and with the bombardment of ads and promotions just a click away, it’s easier than ever to fall down a rabbit hole of spending online. Still, if you’re going to spend money, why not donate to charity while you’re at it? 

Amazon Smile contains all the features of the regular Amazon website, with one key difference: for every purchase you make on Amazon Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% to a charity of your choice. It’s a win-win situation: you get to spend to your heart’s content—within the limits of your bank account, of course—and in the process, donate to your favorite charity. 

Amazon Smile also allows charities to make a wishlist of some of the most commonly requested items. This way, shoppers can help their favorite charities even more by directly giving them items they will use. Even better, purchasing those items on Amazon Smile means both the goods and 0.5% of the money go to the charity. 

The more you purchase, the more Amazon will donate, so there’s no better time to start than now. Whether you’re a casual shopper or you spend your money like it grows on trees, Amazon Smile will ensure at least some of it goes to a good cause. Go to Amazon Smile  and begin shopping today.

Over the years I have generated close to $5 for my charity of choice, Wikimedia Foundation (the nonprofit that keeps Wikipedia running and accessible to all). This number is negligible in the grand scheme of total donations Wikimedia needs, but as Amazon itself says, “when millions of supporters shop at Amazon Smile, charitable donations quickly add up.”

Senior Ellaheh Gohari is entering her fourth (and sadly final) year on staff and third year as co-EIC of the Patriot Post. She loves learning new things and can often be found going down Wikipedia rabbit holes in search of random knowledge. Outside of room 25310, she serves as co-president to both the Girls Excelling in Math and Science club and the Science National Honor Society. A science-lover, she enjoys exploring the subject through research projects with UMiami, volunteer tutoring with OTTER and fact-checks with MediaWise. She hopes you enjoy your time reading the Patriot Post.