BUCKHANNON – Did you know you can shop Black Friday deals on Amazon while simultaneously contributing to your favorite charitable organization at no additional cost?

In fact, you can ensure your local charity of choice benefits from your Amazon purchases any time of the year – not just during the holiday season – through the AmazonSmile Foundation.

If you’re an AmazonSmile newbie and plan to peruse Amazon.com’s selection of merchandise for Christmas presents for loved ones – or, let’s be honest, for yourself — start at smile.amazon.com. The basic concept is, anytime you make a purchase, the AmazonSmile Foundation will contribute 0.5 percent of the purchase price of eligible items to the local charity or nonprofit of your choice.

In fact, within the ‘26201’ zip code area, there are more than 90 registered organizations, including the St. Joseph’s Foundation of Buckhannon, Inc.; Central West Virginia Aging Services; Upshur County Senior Citizens Opportunity Center, Inc. (Upshur Senior Center); Friends of the Upshur County Public Library; LUV 4 Animals; Upshur County Cooperative Parish (Upshur Parish House); Child Development Center of Central WV; Chapel Hill United Methodist Church; and Buckhannon Community Theatre, to name only a few.

Here’s the nitty-gritty: if you’ve never used AmazonSmile before, simply log into your regular Amazon account, visit smile.amazon.com and then click the ‘Get Started’ button. You can search by zip code and organization type – such as pets and animals, human services, veterans, arts and culture, among other categories – for the charity of your choice. You can also find AmazonSmile on the regular Amazon app for iPhone and Android mobile devices.

Then, once you make an eligible purchase from the smile.amazon.com page, the Foundation will contribute 0.5 percent of the purchase price before taxes and shipping/handling fees to your selected organization at no extra cost to you.

Even better, you’re not locked into contributing to the same nonprofit or charity if you decide you’d like the 0.5 percent to be directed elsewhere. Simply hover over the ‘Your Account’ tab, click on Your AmazonSmile and select ‘Change Charity.’ AmazonSmile will keep tabs on how much the foundation has contributed to your chosen organization based on your purchases over time.

Are you a member of a nonprofit or charitable organization who wants to get started? Visit org.amazon.com to learn how to register.

According to the AmazonSmile Foundation information page, donations are distributed quarterly via electronic bank account deposits, and since AmazonSmile’s inception in 2013, U.S. charities have garnered almost $217 million as of November 2020.

Read more about the AmazonSmile Foundation here.