The Alexa Political Contributions feature opens up a powerful new fundraising channel for 2020 U.S. presidential campaigns to accept contributions through the more-than 100 million Alexa-powered devices.
Eligible donors simply say “Alexa, I want to make a political contribution” or “Alexa, donate [amount] to [candidate name]”. Amazon Pay will process the donation using the information and default payment method already stored in the donors’ Amazon account.
No Alexa skill development or technical expertise is necessary to enable donations through Alexa Political Contributions – just follow the steps below. If you have questions along the way, please reach out to donationsupport@amazon.com.
Before you get started
Only the principal campaign committees of 2020 U.S. presidential candidates are eligible to accept donations through Alexa Political Contributions using Amazon Pay. To streamline setup, collect the required information listed below before you start the registration process:
- Government-issued ID for an authorized representative of the principal campaign committee
- Filed FEC forms 1 (Statement of Organization) and 2 (Statement of Candidacy) and a valid website that includes a privacy policy
- U.S.-based phone number for our registration service to contact you
- Credit card (issued by a U.S.-based bank)
- Checking account (with a U.S.-based bank)
- Business taxpayer ID or EIN
Sign up for Amazon Pay
Step 1: Once you have all the necessary information, go to https://pay.amazon.com and click Register. Enter the basic information requested, then click Submit.
Step 2: Register as a merchant with Amazon Pay. When asked, “What’s your business information?”, under Business category choose Political donation.
Step 3: After completing registration, send an email to donationsupport@amazon.com with the following information:
- Confirmation that you have completed registration
- The email address you used for registering
- A readable copy of or link to your filed FEC form 1 (Statement of Organization)
- A readable copy of or link to your filed FEC form 2 (Statement of Candidacy)
- Three preferred variations of the candidate’s name or campaign committee—with phonetic spelling for common pronunciations. Donors will be able to make a voice donation using the candidate’s full name and the name of the principal campaign committee, but we will also support more common names that donors might use to refer to the candidate, like “President Washington” or “Senator Kennedy.”
Step 4: Once you receive a reply from Amazon Pay with a secure link, upload the ID of an authorized representative, as well as bank account documents for Amazon Pay to use as verification.
Step 5: Amazon Pay will review your registration and documentation, and then send an email notifying you when the campaign has been activated to start accepting donations on Alexa.
For More Information
If have any questions about setting up Alexa Political Contributions please reach out to donationsupport@amazon.com.
Learn more about Alexa Political Contributions at https://pay.amazon.com/politicaldonations.