Just say, “Alexa, donate to charity”
We all want to do a good deed and contribute to causes that matter to us, but sometimes it’s just so darned complicated to actually donate.
Alexa allows you to donate to Amazon-approved charitable organizations with just your voice.
Amazon does the work, vetting each charitable applicant in conjunction with GuideStar. Options run the gamut from American Cancer Society and Doctors Without Borders to more niche ones, like MusicCares and Arizona Small Dog Rescue.
Donations are made via your Amazon Pay account. They only share your name, address, and email address, not your bank info, so you don’t have to worry about recurring charges.
You’ll get an email confirmation for each donation, and can review a history of all of your donations at pay.amazon.com. The charitable organizations can also provide an email receipt for tax purposes.
Here’s how it works:
- If you already know the charity, say, “Alexa, donate $10 to MusicCares.” She’ll ask you to confirm before making the donation.
- Don’t know where you’d like to donate? Say, “Alexa, donate to charity.”
- She’ll ask, “What charity do you want to donate to?” Respond with “I don’t know” and she’ll send a list of available charities to your Alexa app. (To find it, go to your app and tap More in the bottom right, then Activity.)
- If you don’t want to scroll through on your phone, check them out online at pay.amazon.com/alexadonations.
Pro Tip: Have a regular charity you want to support when you shop? Make it your default when you shop at smile.amazon.com. The site is a mirror of the regular Amazon site, with the same products and prices, but they donate 0.5% of all purchases to charity—more than $215 million as of September 2020!