As the holiday shopping season begins, here's a reminder for any members who shop on Amazon.com. By clicking on the green Amazon box (located on the main forum page) prior to shopping, it will help support OCF. Its very easy to do, please dont forget about OCF when you think about giving to others.

For newer members, you may not know OCF is a very small non-profit. Its run on a shoestring budget and the small kickback from Amazon really does make a difference. The CA office only has Brian, Jamie and Natalie. Everyone else is a volunteer who devotes their time to helping OCF and others. There are volunteers all over the country who do all kinds of things to help support OCF. Using the Amazon link is not just for end of year purchases, it can be used all year long. OCF also accepts donations which are tax deductible. To contribute, click on the blue box on the main page, one of the OCF Memorial Funds, or check out one of the personal fund raising campaigns to make your donation.

If you are able to, please dont forget OCF during the season of giving. Together, thru research, advocacy and support we can help end oral cancer.

Thank you!

Click on the Amazon box that Christine mentions and, before you do anything else, save it as a bookmark (I've saved mine as "Amazon OCF"). If you start subsequent shopping with that bookmark, OCF will still get the credit.

Thank you both for bringing this up. OCF's Amazon commission is between 5 and 7% of anything that you buy, costs you nothing but the time to use the right entry point, and it really helps to pay for things like the phone bill and stuff that people typically aren't interested in seeing their donations go to.

We have been an Amazon Affiliate for almost a decade and each year it becomes more and more valuable to us, as people keep it as a link, and email it to their friends, family, and co-workers, building our base of people that use it with routine. The trick is always having the right link available so you don't have to come to OCF before you go to Amazon. One friend who worked at Goodyear (aerospace) sent it to all the employees there at the company with a simple ask letter, and that Christmas we had a huge check from Amazon. Most of those people have stayed with us and the impact is really meaningful. And Amazon has killer prices on most things, so it's smart shopping in other ways as well, especially in there economic times.

Amazon does NOT REMEMBER YOU FROM VISIT TO VISIT, SO YOU ALWYAS HAVE TO ENTER THROUGH OUR LINK FOR THIS TO WORK. When you use our link you will see part of the OCF name in the URL bar when you go there; that is how you know that you did it right.

http://www.amazon.com/?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0&link_code=hom&tag=oralcancfoun-20

I thank all of you for considering to do this. We get our mission done through a variety of means, not the least of which are the many volunteers around the country, and simple things like this. When you are small, you have to be creative, and I am learning you have to not be afraid to ask for help.

I want you all to know that this forum and the people in it, are the thing about OCF that I am the proudest of. You are all so caring and giving of your time to help each other through this journey. You see that no one has to be alone on the path, and you have all been so good about putting not only great emotional support out, but quality information from your own experiences that others can use. You are really the heart and soul of OCF.

I just posted it to my FB page and made sure I clicked on the "public" option so it could go out to everybody and not just friends. I also went to bitty.com and made a short link that they could use that also. Amazon really does have great prices and fast service and great return policy.