Discussion: FREE - Charitable Donations to USOF

Its now possible to shop at Amazon and have them make a FREE donation to USOF. Its a program called Amazon Smile. Every time you shop and use a special URL smile.amazon.com they will make a donation! This is a no brainer....lets face it you are probably shopping anyway.

How do I select a charitable organization to support when shopping on AmazonSmile?

On your first visit to AmazonSmile smile.amazon.com, you need to select a charitable organization to receive donations from eligible purchases before you begin shopping. We will remember your selection, and then every eligible purchase you make at smile.amazon.com will result in a donation.

Jeremy

0.5% of every purchase goes to USOF

(or another orienteering organization of your choice)

Not that I'm discouraging donating to USOF, but I'm sending my meager Amazon Smile purchase contributions to my primary club.

I think it's a great program for non-profits, and it was easy to get registered.

My total donated amount last year was a little over $11---I think. I figured aggregating amounts like that for a local club wouldn't amount to much, but if a lot of people chose USOF (the "official name" of OUSA), it could add up to a meaningful amount.

Just the hassle of setting it up and replying to Amazon when issues arise, for such a small amount, seems like a good reason for clubs to suggest sending it to USOF/OUSA instead.

Ok, done.

And... When I typed USOF into the organization search it came back "not found". So I tried Orienteering. That came back with a list of over 30 recognizable US orienteering clubs (including USOF) before it veered off topic (like a typical google search) into 185 pages of random other results.

Evidently a fair number of clubs have found it not such a hassle to set up.

My local search and rescue unit signed up for this (fairly easily I understand). The amount the unit received from my purchases was several dollars, but over four hundred in total based on everyone's purchases. Note that purchases made through the Amazon app don't count, nor those made at www.amazon.com, only smile.amazon.com. (The latter website looks almost identical to the former website, other than the options for selecting your charity and seeing how much the charity has received through the program.)

For those of us that just want to send in a check, please note the address for contributions has changed to:

USOF
824 Scotia Road
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19128

My check, sent to the previous address in February, still has not been cashed.

What's a check?

It's what you New Zealanders would call a baby chicken.

Oh I see, our American friends are using the barter economy. Must be like beetcoin.

An alternative to sugarcane?

That's great.

They live in Prague.

Navigation Games
:-)

BAOC is listed, although I don't think any one did anything with Amazon. The page on setting it up says that if your organization is registered with GuideStar, you will be included. We set that up over a year ago, to allow members with employer donation matching to track their donations and get their employer to contribute.

My employer also pays a small amount for the volunteer time I spend. I log the Board meetings and any events at which I volunteer but don't compete.

Just thought I would check back in on this. Now almost 2 years later my Amazon Smile contributions have generated a whopping $10.91 for USOF/OUSA. And everyone together has generated $215.10 (as of February). So either we as a group just don't purchase all that much there, or only a few are participating, or we're forgetting to shop via the special url. Or maybe all of the above.

I support EMPO on AmazonSmile. I've donated all of $23.92 to date, since EMPO signed up for it.

My guess is that people either don't know about it/don't care/support other charities.

I've earned $12.95 for OUSA. I clearly need to buy more stuff.