The holiday shopping season is already in full swing, and it’s a great time to get some deals for you or your loved ones! But as today is World Kindness Day, I decided to highlight some ways you can spread a little kindness while shopping. I’ve made some suggestions before on ways to spread a little holiday cheer, with many coming in at little to no cost. This list, however, is all about how you can help while you are shopping. Some may be as familiar to you as the red kettles and bellringers you see every year, but perhaps you’ll find a new way to donate today…or at least be inspired to spread a little kindness today.
Amazon Smile
Most of you probably are going to pick up something at Amazon this year. But if you sign up with Amazon Smile, a small portion of every purchase goes to an organization of your choice. I’m supporting a local animal shelter and have raised almost $40 for buying things I was going to anyway. There are even some browser and Greasemonkey scripts to automatically go to smile.amazon.com without you remembering to go there yourself. If you use the app, follow these instructions to turn on Amazon Smile, which requires notifications.
Goodshop/iGive
Go to either of these signs and sign up. Then before you shop online, go to one of these sites and click a link there to the store you want to visit, and a portion of your purchase will go to a cause of your choice. Make sure you have adblockers disabled though! There are other similar portals out there, but these are the biggest and most well-known. Feel free to check out others, though, especially if you’re looking for a particular charity.
Humble Bundle
Humble Bundle is a great way to get some digital items at very low prices. Not only that, part of the money goes to different charities like Blue Star Mothers of America, National Coalition Against Censorship, and more. Manga publishers like Kodansha and VIZ have offered up huge swaths of popular series like Attack on Titan for pennies on the dollar along with game publishers like Idea Factory! But if there’s nothing there that interests you, shop the Humble Bundle Store for digital computer games.
Hot Topic/JCPenney
Lots of stores will ask you to make a donation at checkout. Places like Hot Topic and JCPenney allow you to round up your purchase to the nearest dollar to donate it to a charity. Rounding up is nice if you don’t want to worry about carrying coins from your change or just want to easily keep track of your bank balance.
Target Circle
Target Circle is brand new, having only launched nationwide last month. Circle has a couple of different benefits including coupons. You sign up and either scan a barcode from your Target app or enter your phone number at checkout. Do this every time you check out at Target, and you can earn votes to decide what local organization Target should donate money to. I’m not really sure how they define “local”, as all my current options are across the state, but it looks like it might reset every quarter. Either way, some organization is going to get some money thanks to you buying things at Target.