Smile all the Time with Amazon Smile. 5 Tips and Tricks to Keep Your Amazon Smile Account Running Smoothly

After you have logged into Amazon Smile account, make sure that you donation is being received by your favorite charity on your Amazon Smile account with these 5 tips.

Written by Community Spotlight

Brades' Place partners with members of the community who want to share their experiences and insights into the world of palliative care. If you are interested in sharing your own thoughts or experiences, reach out to us using the contact form on the website.

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Published March 11, 2022

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Community Spotlight

Amazon Smile is an organization that donates .5% of your purchase on Amazon to a charity of your choice free of charge. When you shop, amazon gives. This is an incredible tool for charities and foundations to receive funding without spending an arm and a leg to advertise just to receive donations. It is a simple way anyone can help. Sometimes we think we are helping when maybe we aren’t just because of misinformation. We want to share 5 ways that we know how you can ensure your donations count on Amazon Smile.

1. Shop Through Amazon Smile, not Amazon

If you shop through Amazon.com none of your purchases will donate towards your charity even if you are registered for Amazon Smile. Even though it is tedious you need to go to the Amazon Smile website every time you want to donate. We suggest adding a bookmark for smile.amazon.com so it ensures that you are always donating when you can.

2. Make sure that you have chosen your charity on Amazon Smile

If you have not chosen a charity or your charity is not listed, you need to choose a charity to donate. If you look in the top left corner of your screen there should be a tab that says “Supporting:” and then your charity of choice. If you click on that tab, it shows the Charity, their mission, and how much you have donated to them through Amazon Smile. You can also always change your charity as well through this tab. If you have not chosen a charity yet, I suggest using Brades’ Place in Orem, Utah. They help children and families with complex medical issues and Palliative Care.

3. Change Your Mobile App to Amazon Smile

Changing your mobile Amazon App to Amazon Smile will ensure that all your Amazon purchases will donate and give back to someone in need. The procedure in doing this is very simple and easy to follow. Here are the steps to change your mobile app to Amazon Smile:

Open the Amazon Shopping app
Navigate to the main menu (=)
Tap on Settings and then select “AmazonSmile”
Select your charity and then follow the on-screen instructions to turn ON AmazonSmile in the mobile app
Once AmazonSmile has been activated in your app, future eligible app purchases will generate a donation for the charity you have selected.

4. Set a Reminder on Your Calendar to Renew your Amazon Smile for your Mobile App

You do not need to renew your Amazon Smile account on your desktop or laptop, but Amazon requires you to renew your amazon smile on your mobile device every 6 months. You will need to repeat the same process that I shared in the list above. This is kind of annoying of Amazon, but we can combat this problem by setting a reminder in your calendar to renew your Amazon Smile account.

5. Make sure your Purchase Qualifies as an Amazon Donation

Not all items on Amazon Smile qualify as a donation. When you browse through the different products on smile.amazon.com before you buy, check to see if it is eligible to donate to your favorite charity. You can see this as a note on the listings to see whether it is eligible or not.