Friday, July 18, 2014

Amazon Shopping Can Benefit This Charity ...

A few minutes of your time to read and sign up will do a lot of good in due course

Many large retail firms allow a percent of a sale to be dedicated to a charity or school. It may seem like so little, since we are talking about a half a penny for every dollar, but over the course of a year and a sizable number of purchases, it might mean a commercial hotel room for an indigent family.

Normal Amazon shopping and it costs you nothing!

Earlier this year Amazon introduced a new program called AmazonSmile, which will automatically donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Interfaith Humanitarian Sanctum, Inc. if you register and select our charity for consideration. It costs you nothing, and it's just like shopping on Amazon normally, but you get to do a world of good to help with the unmet needs in the area for patients and families at UVA Medical Center.

Make it easy: add a bookmark to AmazonSmile,  return and start your shopping at AmazonSmile

Please be aware of the items that are eligible for the donations. These will always be marked as such on each of their product pages. There is a special URL that it is necessary to use in order to be part of the donation program.  You may also want to add a bookmark to AmazonSmile to make it even easier to return and start your shopping at AmazonSmile. This is the only real catch ... you must start your shopping at http://smile.amazon.com (and do not forget you have to update your automatic bookmark if you want to participate in this). Once you are successfully logged into the Smile Program, you will notice the logo, "Amazon Smile" will be located in the upper left corner of your home page on the http://smile.amazon.com site.

Note: It is not necessary to have created an annual paid subscription to "Amazon Prime" membership in order to participate. There are no restrictions to anyone making part of their purchase on Amazon.com to go to IHS.

That first visit to AmazonSmile is important to secure the automatic donations

On your first visit to AmazonSmile website, you need to manually enter Interfaith Humanitarian Sanctum, Inc. in the selection box to receive donations from eligible purchases before you begin shopping. The Amazon system will remember your selection of IHS from now on, and then every eligible purchase you make on AmazonSmile will result in a donation of 0.5%.

There are always some limitations, but they are few. READ ON...

Unfortunately, Subscribe-and-Save purchases and renewals don't count. In addition, shopping from the Amazon apps, Kindle, or through affiliate links won't count either. Purchases made using an Amazon Shopping App are not currently eligible for donations. Purchases made from any Kindle E-reader device through the Kindle Store are not eligible for donations. Otherwise, it's just like shopping on Amazon only you get to support IHS without doing anything extra.

Lots of options for shopping and a little time to change a bookmark makes a difference

So, you can now shop on http://smile.amazon.com using an internet browser on your desktop or laptop computer, your mobile phone, or your tablet (including any Kindle Fire device), then your AmazonSmile purchases will be eligible for donations. Your shopping cart, Wish List, wedding or baby registry, and other account settings are also the same. Just a little time to change a bookmark can make such a big difference to so many with so little that really need help with unmet needs.

For other questions that might arise or information on the program, please consult the FAQ page at: http://smile.amazon.com/about. At some point many will turn to Amazon for saving on a particular item, especially for holiday gifts, or anytime for a newly released book. Make sure you are into AmazonSmile so your purchases are adding to opportunities for others. 

Finally, if you run into technical problems or challenges setting up your account, please provide a phone number in an email to ihsanctum@gmail.com ATTENTION: Sam McLawhorn. Sam will help you to solve your issues if at all possible via phone. We want this to be a pleasurable experience for everyone who wishes to help.

Blessings ...  ALL of us at IHS