Let Amazon Contribute to UUSM

“Wouldn’t it be great to  have a winning lottery ticket and be able to make a big donation to UUSM?” Linda said at the morning\’s breakfast.

‘That’s a terrific idea” I said. “But first, we have to buy a lottery ticket and the chances of us winning are pretty slim. We’ve never played the lottery.”

Linda said, “I’ve got an idea, and it won’t cost a cent and the church can get some additional revenue through targeted donations. Amazon will donate .5% of whatever we spend to the charity of our choice.”

“You’re talking about Amazon’s Smile donation program, right?” I replied.

“Yes” Linda responded. “All we have to do is login to Amazon at their Smile portal and order our usual products.”

“Besides benefiting the church, it’s easy to set up. We’re buying things from Amazon anyway. We could be helping the church by designating them as our favorite non-profit organization” I added.

“Why don’t you share the how-to piece you made for people who want the church to get small contributions” she suggested. “Imagine, if everyone in the church ordered their Amazon products this way, the church would benefit”

So here are the three steps to order your Amazon products and automatically send UUSM the benefits.

Step 1 – Log Into Amazon’s Smile Portal

You probably already have a login name or email and a password that you use when you sign in to Amazon for your purchases. Have that information handy. Instead of logging into Amazon.com, log into Amazon’s charity portal at:

https://smile.amazon.com

On this page, you will see this screen. Click on the yellow “Get started” button (see the red arrow on the screen shot below).

 

Clicking on the yellow button will take you to the Amazon login screen (below). Type in your Amazon account email or phone number and click on the gold “Continue” button just below it.

Next, type in your Amazon account password and click on the gold “Continue” button below it (see red arrow in screen shot below):

Next, type in your Amazon account password and click on the gold “Sign-in” button below it (see red arrow in screen shot below) and finally, click the \”Sign-In\” button:

You are now logged into your Amazon account and on their Smile charity portal.

Step 2 – Designate UUSM as your charity

Click on the “Supporting” tab (see red arrow in screen shot below) to move to next screen.

 

In the next screen, type “Unitarian Universalist of Santa Monica” (as shown below in #1 arrow) and click on the “Search” (shown by the #2 arrow below). It will display the name of the church (as shown below in the #3 arrow).  To select your church, click on the yellow “Select” button (shown by the #4 arrow below).

You now see that UUSM has been selected (see the red arrow in this screen shot below):

You have successfully set up your Amazon account to automatically contribute (from Amazon’s profits) an amount equal to a percentage of the money you spend at Amazon.

From now on, all you have to do is login to Amazon at the Smile portal (https://smile.amazon.com and begin your search for your desired purchases.

Step 3 – Order Your Products from Amazon

Simply login to your Amazon Smile account at https://smile.amazon.com. Click on the search bar (see red arrow in screen shot below) and type in the name or type of product you intend to purchase and proceed as you always do in purchasing from Amazon.

See if that automatic church contribution puts a smile on your face.

Philip Siddons is a new member and contributing author. He and his wife Linda are new to Santa Monica. They came from Buffalo, New York, having lived in Chicago and Boston. Philip was a Technology and Communications Coordinator for a number of non-profits. Philip’s three books are on Amazon and his Medium.com articles are indexed at https://connectedness.org.