disaster relief

Amazon.com is helping out the American Red Cross with relief in response to the recent earthquake/tsunami disaster. Amazon has had their "Honor System" of payment for quite some time now, which was originally set up to allow people to make donations to web sites (such as a charity, or a big message board that needs to pay for server space, or a local garage band selling mp3's of their music).

Typically there is a small fee attached to each transaction, as a retail store would have with any credit card. But for this disaster relief fund, Amazon is waiving the fee and forwarding 100% of people's donations to the American Red Cross. When I donated yesterday, they had collected $8.2 million, and already today it's up to $11.3 million, from just 140,800 people, with more money coming in by the minute.

If you're up to it, click here, and it's linked right from the home page. It's quick and easy if you already have an Amazon.com account set up, and you can give any amount.