Dean Pomerleau Posted January 26, 2016 Report Share Posted January 26, 2016 Michael, Over on this thread about storing nuts for winter , you linked to the same product I did on Amazon, desiccant pads for absorbing moisture, but instead of a direct link to Amazon's main page (i.e. www.amazon.com) your link points to the product through the AmazonSmile service (i.e. smile.amazon.com). For anyone who doesn't know about Amazon Smile, it is a service by which Amazon donates a small fraction of the price from any product you buy to the charity of your choice. On the surface it seems like a great idea. There are many charities to choose from, including Aubrey's (and Michael's) SENS Foundation for defeating aging. [side Note: Interesting Michael, I'm not sure if you know but if I follow your link the charity that receives the donation is not the one you chose (presumably SENS) but the one I chose. Which makes sense, but isn't entirely clear when you post a link...] But more importantly Michael, I'm wondering what you and other organizations that accept donations think about Amazon Smile and other indirect ways people can support your cause. Amazon Smile only donates 0.5% of the purchase price of an item to the charity of your choice, so someone would have to spend $10,000 through Amazon Smile for SENS to receive $50 in donation. That's a pretty meager amount per dollar spent, but hey, its better than nothing, right? Well, maybe not... This HuffPost article makes a pretty good argument that this type of passive donation actually harms the charities involved. How? Because people who spend a hundred dollars via Amazon Smile will feel good about themselves and their level of support for the charity of their choice. So they may be less likely to donate to the charity in any meaningful amount later during a regular fund drive, instead thinking: "I'm already donating to SENS via Amazon Smile. There are other charities I care about too, so I'll donate to them instead of SENS since I've already doing my part for SENS." But in fact they will have donated only $0.50 to SENS as a result of their Amazon Smile purchase, much less than they would have otherwise donated directly. In support of this troubling possibility, a new study (discussed here) found something quite closely related: f people are able to declare support for a charity publicly in social media it can actually make them less likely to donate to the cause later on. This is given the term Slacktivism - and it involves taking measures that make you feel good (e.g. "Liking" a cause on social media, "writing" a form letter on-line to your congressperson) but which actually does very little of significance for the cause/charity involved. I'm wondering if the good folks in the fundraising department at SENS have considered whether participating in the Amazon Smile program is a net benefit or not. I realize it would be hard to quantify, but it seems to me to be something worth considering. I know I fall prey to the "good feeling" of passively supporting a cause on-line sometimes, and can imagine reducing my subsequent donation to the cause as a result. And on the opposite side - have the good folks at the CR Society considered signing up for Amazon Smile? Given how passive the CR Society is about raising money, I can't imagine this downside of Slacktivism support is going to eat into the money the CR Society raises. Instead it would seem like almost a sure way to (modestly) raise funds to support CR Society expenses. My family spent nearly $5K on Amazon last year (yes - I do most of my non-grocery shopping there), and would have been happy if that had resulted in a $25 donation to the CRS. [Update/Correction: I went back to Amazon Smile and discovered low and behold that the CRS is already a registered charity that you can point your purchase donations towards! So I've changed my smile charity to the CRS, and I encourage others to do the same and to donate directly.] --Dean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dean Pomerleau Posted January 26, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2016 All, For Chrome browser users, there is a cool plug-in called Smile Always that always redirects links to amazon.com through smile.amazon.com. Firefox has a similar extension called Smile Redirect. With either of these installed, whenever you click on a link to Amazon.com (like all those I post!) in your browser, it will automatically make sure you donate to your favorite charity (hopefully the CRS!) when / if you purchase the item. Unfortunately there is apparently no way (yet) to donate to your Amazon Smile charity when you make a purchase through the Android or iOS Amazon apps. --Dean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeta Posted February 6, 2016 Report Share Posted February 6, 2016 Dean, you seem a worthy cause to me, given, among many other things, the huge efforts you make here! Is there some kind of link I can "go through" when I go to Amazon that guarantees that my purchases will earn you credit (or whatever it is you earn)? I see a "dp" and then a string of letters and numbers after some of your Amazon links, but there should be a way to land at Amazon in such a way that no matter whence I click from there, everything in my shopping cart results in bennies to you. Zeta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dean Pomerleau Posted February 6, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2016 Zeta, I see a "dp" and then a string of letters and numbers after some of your Amazon links... A mere coincidence that I've noticed as well. The 'dp' in some of the Amazon links I post has nothing to do with me - that is just some sort of weird internal Amazon server naming convention. I'm not an Amazon affiliate or anything like that - although I'm not surprised you might think that given how many Amazon links I post :-). Is there some kind of link I can "go through" when I go to Amazon that guarantees that my purchases will earn you credit (or whatever it is you earn)? That is so kind of you to think of me! But honestly, I'm blessed with more material abundance than I deserve. If you'd like to do something kind on my behalf, you could change your Amazon Smile charity to the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation, which is near-and-dear to my heart :-(, and be sure to use one of the browser plug-ins mentioned above to make all your purchases through Amazon Smile. Alternatively, you could donate to the CR Society through Amazon Smile, which will help keep these forums going - so I can continue to spill my guts out :-). Just don't fall for into the "Slacktivism" trap, and donate less directly because you're contributing a tiny amount via Amazon Smile... --Dean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeta Posted February 7, 2016 Report Share Posted February 7, 2016 If you'd like to do something kind on my behalf, you could change your Amazon Smile charity to the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation, which is near-and-dear to my heart :-(, and be sure to use one of the browser plug-ins mentioned above to make all your purchases through Amazon Smile. Alternatively, you could donate to the CR Society through Amazon Smile, which will help keep these forums going - so I can continue to spill my guts out :-). OK, maybe I'll alternate between the two: the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation, and the CR Society! Thanks again, Zeta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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