[OMS_MANAGERS] Did you know that Amazon through their customers help support Non-profit Organizations! Donate to any organization of your choice

Thu Feb 11 09:57:59 PST 2021

Kendall’s idea is awesome. We have several stores locally that run the “round ups” regularly, and they can actually generate some real $. 

I generally agree with the consensus on Amazon Smile. We set it up last year and promoted it exactly once. And every once in a while, we get a cool $5 or $10 check! 😊 Here’s what we said about it:

From: OMS_MANAGERS <oms_managers-bounces at omls.oregon.gov> on behalf of Lizzy Caston <lizzy at albertamainst.org>
Reply-To: Oregon Main Street program managers <oms_managers at omls.oregon.gov>
Date: Wednesday, February 10, 2021 at 7:25 PM
To: Oregon Main Street program managers <oms_managers at omls.oregon.gov>
Subject: Re: [OMS_MANAGERS] Did you know that Amazon through their customers help support Non-profit Organizations! Donate to any organization of your choice

What a great idea, Kendall! We haven't tried this at Alberta Main Street, and with Covid have flipped to not ask our businesses (especially restaurants) to fundraise for us, rather we fundraise for their needs right now. But I could see this in the future for sure. 

One thing I've been having success with is community giving on specific programs or projects that that community is really into - Graffiti and Trash removal for example and we take a certain percentage to coordinate the program and for our general operations; another is an art "giving tree" where people can take and leave art for free on a tree that's in a planter. That one is incredibly popular for giving. People love to give to things that are tangible and that they can see, understand and are specific. 

But for general community donations we are completely re-examining our current model and looking at proven best practices. If it's helpful, I can share reccs and advice from our fundraising company who is helping us restructure this important main street fundraising component. 

Loving the discussion and mutual support here! 

Lizzy

On Wed, Feb 10, 2021 at 4:37 PM Kendall Bell <kendallbell945 at gmail.com> wrote:

This is an interesting conversation.  I feel Lizzy makes some very good points.

I have wondered if you could get a decent return finding a couple of willing restaurants, coffee shops or retailers that might take on a “Would you like to round up your purchase to support your Downtown Association?” campaign for a month or so?  Even if you found three businesses that could generate 30 “round ups” each, per day, you might bring in approximately $50 a day.  (90 transactions averaging $0.50= $45)  

It could be an entry on their point of sale system, or just a box that the change goes into??   Has anyone had success with something like this?  

Kendall

Klamath Falls

On Feb 10, 2021, at 3:21 PM, A Sight for Sport Eyes via OMS_MANAGERS <oms_managers at omls.oregon.gov> wrote:

With a different non-profit I’m part of, we get a few hundred a year from it. But we just have our members add Smile  to their accounts. We don’t use this as a tool to do any outside fundraising.  It is just part of our new member packet so we don’t have to advertise or promote it, It doesn’t detracting from our public fundraising as it is just our volunteer members that we ask to do it.  I agree that it discourages shop local for Main Streets when that is what it should be focused on. 

Shannen

A Sight for Sport Eyes

1553 11th St.

West Linn, OR 97068

503-699-4160

888-223-2669

Fax: 888-240-6551

www.sporteyes.com

From: OMS_MANAGERS <oms_managers-bounces at omls.oregon.gov> On Behalf Of Lizzy Caston
Sent: Wednesday, February 10, 2021 1:32 PM
To: Oregon Main Street program managers <oms_managers at omls.oregon.gov>
Subject: Re: [OMS_MANAGERS] Did you know that Amazon through their customers help support Non-profit Organizations! Donate to any organization of your choice

I don't mean to be the contrarian of the group - and every Main Street is different so this might work great for some. However, I've had three professional fundraising companies advise not to use Amazon Smile for our main street. Here's why and just something for other main streets to weigh and consider on what's best for them before diving in: 

1. 1/2 of one penny as payment might not be worth the additional staff time, marketing efforts, admin work and that takes away from larger fundraising, community engagement efforts. And less than 2500 nonprofits in the US make over $1000 a year with it, not including staff time to promote, manage it, etc. 
2. Donations are not tax deductible to those shopping with it. (see below articles)
3. It diverts larger community donations - people think they are already "supporting" your main street with AmazonSmiles so are not apt to donate a larger amount directly
4. It dilutes main street direct donor relationship building, donor nurturing, appreciation away from the Main Street and onto an impersonal, large, multinational corporation. As we know in direct fundraising, relationships are everything. 
5. Very competitive with other AmazonSmiles charities. There's a lot of charities playing this game, and the competition is fierce. 
6. Very low rate of return. The numbers didn't add up to make this a good deal for our main street - it benefits Amazon more than us, it's a low conversion rate, and at the end it's just such a tiny amount of money. (please tell me if your mainstreet sees otherwise!). Example calculation: Let's say our mailing list is 20,000 people. A high conversion rate would be 1% taking action on Amazon. So 200 members of our mailing list might spend an average of $100 on amazonsmile for us. So of the $20k sales that benefits Amazon, our main street would only receive $100. 
7. Could harm our ability to receive funding /sponsorships for buy local and other local small business programs. Not sure, but perhaps a funder sees we are doing AmazonSmiles and thinks, great, they have Amazon, they aren't promoting local and they don't need us. 
8. The need to promote local shopping, local businesses as the ethos for our community. Promoting and funneling sales to Amazon instead of say, our main street's retailers, our local sponsors such as the locally owned hardware and outdoor camping store goes against our emphasis on supporting main street and local businesses and our shop local campaigns. It would be a bad message, marketing, PR for us to funnel business away from our local main street and other local businesses. 

Like I said, every main street is different. No judgement on those using it, but before Main Streets commit, please weight the actual cost/benefit, and other issues. 

Here's some articles from nonprofit experts critical of AmazonSmiles:

This article weighs the pros and cons, and has a really good breakdown of the actual $ amounts charities received from Amazon Smile
https://connectforimpact.com/amazonsmile/

This article looks at both the benefits, but also the risk of negative ROI and it is pretty comprehensive:
 https://johnkenyon.org/why-amazonsmile-doesnt-turn-my-frown-upside-down/

This nonprofit funding expert is not a fan: 
https://medium.com/@digitalculturenyc/why-nonprofits-need-to-stop-falling-for-the-amazon-smile-scam-f68d389c801c

Thanks! 

On Wed, Feb 10, 2021 at 12:58 PM Dallas Downtown Association <m.fisher.dda at gmail.com> wrote:

Did you know that when shopping online at Amazon you can choose the non-profit organization that you want to help fund. To do this now: Enter "smile.amazon.com" in your browser address bar, Choose which organization you would like to help fund in the drop down box in the left upper hand corner, Shop & place your order and Amazon donates to the organization of your choice.

Go to smile.amazon.com if you want to support Dallas Downtown Association.

Now available in the Amazon Shopping app Learn more

Dallas Downtown Association Change Location: Dallas, OR

Mission: To Encourage And Inspire Restoration, Economic Vitality, The Arts And Community Spirit In The Historic (Dallas) Downtown District.

About AmazonSmile Generated by you as of February 08, 2021 $0.00

All others

US charities have received $217,644,976.48 as of November 2020 Your AmazonSmile impact.

To support charity, always shop at smile.amazon.com Try these 2 easy ways to start with a smile. Learn about AmazonSmile

Bookmark AmazonSmile now by pressing Control B on your keyboard.

1. Create a bookmark Drag this box to your bookmarks or favorites bar to create a shortcut to smile.amazon.com on your desktop computer or mobile web browser.

2. Install the Amazon Assistant Get easy access to Product Comparisons, Deal of the Day, and time-saving shortcuts, which all link to smile.amazon.com. Learn more

Melanie Fisher, Executive Director 

Dallas Downtown Association

Office: 971-701-1880  | Direct: 971-707-2335

PO Box 903 | Dallas, OR. 97338

Email | Website | Facebook | Instagram

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