Shop for Charity: how to earn proven charities 5% of your Amazon spending in commission
post by tog · 2014-11-24T08:29:32.996Z · LW · GW · Legacy · 13 commentsContents
Direct links to Amazon for your bookmarks From now through November 28: Black Friday Deals Week Please share these links None 13 comments
If you shop on Amazon in the countries listed below, you can earn a substantial commission for charity by doing so via the links below. This is a cost-free way to do a lot of good, so I'd encourage you to do so! You can bookmark one of the direct links to Amazon below and then use that bookmark every time you shop.
The commission will be at least 5%, varying by product category. This is substantially better than the AmazonSmile scheme available in the US, which only gives 0.5% of the money you spend to charity. It works through Amazon's 'Associates Program', which pays this commission for referring purchasers to them, from the unaltered purchase price (details here). It doesn't cost the purchaser anything. The money goes to Associates Program accounts owned by the EA non-profit Charity Science, money to which always gets regranted to GiveWell-recommended charities unless explicitly earmarked otherwise. For ease of administration and to get tax-deductibility, commission will get regranted to the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative until further notice.
Direct links to Amazon for your bookmarks
If you'd like to shop for charity, please bookmark the appropriate link below now:
From now through November 28: Black Friday Deals Week
Amazon's biggest cut price sale is this week. The links below take you to currently available deals:
Please share these links
I'll add other links on the main 'Shop for Charity' page later. I'd love to hear suggestions for good commission schemes in other countries. If you'd like to share these links with friends and family, please point them to this post or even better this project's main page.
Happy shopping!
'Shop for Charity' is a Charity Science project
13 comments
Comments sorted by top scores.
comment by yrudoy · 2014-12-05T12:10:13.260Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Do you get the bonus if you add things to your cart in a different session but "check out" in this session? My most common use case is navigating to Amazon from an external link, so I'd like to know if I can get the same benefit by filling my cart that way and then just using this link to "check out".
Replies from: tog, TylerJay↑ comment by tog · 2014-12-10T22:34:37.921Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
I don't know, but you can message me listing some things you've bought and I can tell you whether they got commission.
Replies from: tog↑ comment by TylerJay · 2014-12-07T21:14:49.831Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
I agree. Information on the mechanism would be helpful. I've already used the links, but don't know if it's working
Replies from: tog↑ comment by tog · 2014-12-10T22:35:01.282Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Hi, as I said to yrudoy you can message me listing some things you've bought and I can tell you whether they got commission.
comment by shminux · 2014-11-24T16:48:20.220Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
But that means I have to give up the more immediate and gratifying cause of supporting Scott Alexander of slatestarcodex.
Replies from: togcomment by Slider · 2014-11-25T10:35:55.765Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Amazon probably does this to make people feel better in switching to them. Large megacorporations are able to do so partly because they can organise their finances like all big money players do. This includes stuff like tax planning that routes moneys through Luxembur for less-than neccesary reasons.
I am not convinced that the direct money contribution is worth the enforcement of a structure that makes contribution to the surrounding society mandatory.
Of course it is strictly better than doing so while saving no share for charity or neccesary caring.
Replies from: yrudoy↑ comment by yrudoy · 2014-12-12T01:19:06.693Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
I may be entirely wrong, but I was under the impression that this simply leverages amazon's affiliate program, in which amazon rewards 3rd parties for linking to them. That wouldn't be any sort of public relations play by Amazon, since the policy is transparent to the actual customers.
That doesn't address your point about the tradeoffs involved - if you object enough to Amazon's policies to forgo the benefits, that is entirely your prerogative. Just pointing out that this isn't a case of Amazon baiting people by appearing charitable - rather, some is providing a way to leverage Amazon's existing policies to have Amazon pay commissions on your sale for charity.
comment by Sysice · 2014-11-24T11:10:41.804Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Does this stack with amazon smile? For example, how much money goes where when comparing this link to this one?
Replies from: peter_hurford, tog↑ comment by Peter Wildeford (peter_hurford) · 2014-11-24T16:55:22.985Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Yes, it does.
Amazon Smile gives 0.5% and Shop for Charity / Slatestarcodex gives ~5%. You can stack the two to give 5.5%. (But you cannot stack Shop for Charity and Slatestarcodex.)
↑ comment by tog · 2014-11-24T12:33:23.626Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
I don't actually know, and can't test it as they don't have Amazon Smile outside the US. However if you buy something using both and message me with what it was, I can check if we get commission on it.
Replies from: peter_hurford↑ comment by Peter Wildeford (peter_hurford) · 2014-11-24T16:55:30.215Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
See above.