Thanks guys, it’s helpful to know that that was unclear. I’ve added this sentence to clarify that the commission scheme works rough as I understood: “The 5% comes from Amazon’s ‘affiliate’ scheme, and goes to affiliate accounts which I’ve set up for this project, the money from which I’ll always direct only to GiveWell-recommended charities.” Let me know if there’s anything else you’d like me to make clear.
I’m afraid I don’t quite understand the clarifying sentence (what’s an ‘affiliate account’? why do they give it money?).
I’d actually like a few paragraphs on exactly what’s going on, perhaps in a details section at the end so it’s obvious people don’t need to read it if they’re happy with the overview.
Hi Owen, they pay the commission for referring purchasers to them (as opposed to a competitor), and an affiliate account is what they pay the commission to. I’ve expanded the brief description in the post to this effect, and linked to Wikipedia’s description of this, for anyone who wants to follow the links from there to see more detail. For anyone interested who’s reading more detail in these comments, here is the best description from Amazon I can find, though it’s less clear than Wikipedia and the pages that it links to.
The post seems to imply he’s setting up a non-profit for this purpose, but it would be nice to have details.
Yes, I’ve created the ‘Amazon Associates’ accounts for Charity Science, the (already established) EA non-profit that I work for. Our policy is to always regrant any money which isn’t specifically earmarked to cover our operating costs to GiveWell-recommended charities, and this will always apply to commission earned through Amazon.
In light of Ben’s points below it might be better if you instead promised to hold onto all of the money generated through this scheme.
We’ve discussed this suggestion of the commission staying with Charity Science, but felt that it’d raise less money, and we really only want to be fundraising for end charities from the public; people can see the approach we settled on here.
Seconded. The post seems to imply he’s setting up a non-profit for this purpose, but it would be nice to have details.
Thanks guys, it’s helpful to know that that was unclear. I’ve added this sentence to clarify that the commission scheme works rough as I understood: “The 5% comes from Amazon’s ‘affiliate’ scheme, and goes to affiliate accounts which I’ve set up for this project, the money from which I’ll always direct only to GiveWell-recommended charities.” Let me know if there’s anything else you’d like me to make clear.
I’m afraid I don’t quite understand the clarifying sentence (what’s an ‘affiliate account’? why do they give it money?).
I’d actually like a few paragraphs on exactly what’s going on, perhaps in a details section at the end so it’s obvious people don’t need to read it if they’re happy with the overview.
Hi Owen, they pay the commission for referring purchasers to them (as opposed to a competitor), and an affiliate account is what they pay the commission to. I’ve expanded the brief description in the post to this effect, and linked to Wikipedia’s description of this, for anyone who wants to follow the links from there to see more detail. For anyone interested who’s reading more detail in these comments, here is the best description from Amazon I can find, though it’s less clear than Wikipedia and the pages that it links to.
I’ve now created a Wikipedia page on this program (‘Amazon Associates’), for people wanting more detail on it.
Yes, I’ve created the ‘Amazon Associates’ accounts for Charity Science, the (already established) EA non-profit that I work for. Our policy is to always regrant any money which isn’t specifically earmarked to cover our operating costs to GiveWell-recommended charities, and this will always apply to commission earned through Amazon.
In light of Ben’s points below it might be better if you instead promised to hold onto all of the money generated through this scheme.
We’ve discussed this suggestion of the commission staying with Charity Science, but felt that it’d raise less money, and we really only want to be fundraising for end charities from the public; people can see the approach we settled on here.