Halloween is over, Thanksgiving is just around the corner, there’s no way around it, you’re going to be doing some serious holiday shopping over the next few weeks. Probably a lot of it online. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could check items off your Christmas list and donate to your favorite local charity at the same time?

Well, there is. It’s called AmazonSmile. The AmazonSmile Foundation is a 501(c)(3) private foundation created by Amazon to administer the AmazonSmile program. Here’s the general idea. Instead of logging into Amazon.com like you’ve done hundreds of times before, log into AmazonSmile instead. You get the same great Amazon shopping experience and price points, and the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases to the charitable organizations selected by their customers. That’s right, YOU get to choose who benefits from your online shopping spree.

And there are tons of local charities to choose from. Want to support the arts? The Wichita Falls Art Association, the Wichita Falls Alliance for Arts & Culture, the Wichita Falls Symphony League and more are listed on their site. Maybe you’re more of an outdoors person and want to support local parks, the Circle Trail and the Wee-Chi-Tah Trail, in that case Wichita Falls Streams and Valleys Incorporated might be your choice. Downtown Wichita Falls Development, Hospice of Wichita Falls, the Wichita Falls Railroad Museum, the Wichita County Heritage Society and more are on the list as well. Want to change charities? There’s an option for that too, so you can support a different local charity each time you shop online.

You know you’re going to be doing plenty of online shopping over the next few weeks, so go ahead and check out AmazonSmile. It might even get you back on Santa’s Nice List.

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