I Rediscovered Amazon Smile and You Should Too!
I really cannot believe that I had forgotten all about the minor miracle that is Amazon Smile: if you shop on Amazon (is there anyone who does not?) you can have a life-saving, life-changing impact on any animal welfare group simply by shopping online!
I had signed up years ago and designated Doctors Without Borders as my charity of choice to receive the benefit of my shopping—but honestly I’d forgotten all about it. In the meantime, I wanted to align my personal philanthropic efforts with the mission of the NY Dog Film Festival, which partners at all our nationwide destinations with a local animal welfare group as our beneficiary. Just then I was corresponding with my dear friend Aimee Sadler, shelter dog advocate extraordinaire, whose non-profit Dogs Playing for Life is changing the landscape for dogs cooped up in shelters. And the signature on her email suggests choosing DPFL as your Amazon Smile charity. Perfect timing!
The Founding Sponsor of the NY Dog Film Festival is the non-profit Petco Foundation, which continues to support the Festival because of our commitment to pet charities across the country. In lovely synchrony, the Foundation has also given grants to Dogs Playing for Life, which has brought Aimee’s innovative concept that “Every dog, every day” should get out of its cage and be free to run and play with the other dogs. DPFL has been invited to shelters nationwide and shown eager staff and volunteers how to get thousands of dogs into playgroups as a new part of their daily schedule. In many shelters some dogs had not been out of their cages for weeks or months, but once allowed to play freely in groups they become happier, healthier and more adoptable. I’m very proud that the NY Dog Film Festival supports their work in spreading the word cross-country as we travel.
I urge you to pick whichever animal welfare charity you like best and sign them up on your Amazon account as your Amazon Smile choice. For example, Halo Purely for Pets works closely with the Humane Society of the United States (as do I!) so that would be a wonderful choice, too. Just remember that from then on, you need to log into Amazon through a different portal for your purchases to benefit the charity. Start each shopping session at the URL http://smile.amazon.com, and they will donate 0.5% of the price of your eligible purchases.
AmazonSmile: You shop. Amazon gives. It’s a beautiful thing.
—Tracie Hotchner
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