School fundraising with Amazon: Amazon Associates v. AmazonSmile Comparison Guide

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PTOs, PTAs, and other school groups that are registered 501(c)(3) charities have two Amazon online fundraising options: AmazonSmile and the Amazon Associates Program. There's also good news for non-profit school groups that are not registered 501(c)(3) charities: you’re still eligible to join Amazon Associates.

Judging from the discussions in PTO / PTA Facebook groups, however, far more PTO / PTA leaders are familiar with AmazonSmile than with Amazon Associates. That’s pretty interesting when you consider that Amazon Associates fundraisers are more profitable. As I’ve pointed out before, PTOs, PTAs, and other school groups are raising hundreds to several thousands of dollars a year through the Amazon Associates Program (for a list of Associates fundraising results shared by schools, check out this earlier post). By comparison, volunteers often report raising less than $100 a year with AmazonSmile.

Amazon launched AmazonSmile the same year (2013) that it discontinued Amazon School Rewards, which was part of Amazon’s larger Associates Program. Even though Amazon closed Amazon School Rewards, schools are still welcome to participate in the Associates Program, as you can see from this entry in the Help section of the Amazon Associates website:

Amazon is no longer offering Amazon School Rewards. However, schools are welcome to participate directly in the Amazon Associates Program.

I created this infographic to help compare Amazon Associates and AmazonSmile. It’s designed to help answer questions that have popped up in PTO / PTA Facebook groups and on the School Volunteers Share Facebook page about what is involved in raising money with these programs.