by Clare Doyle

What changes economic disparity and fosters a strong society is education? To put our project into context, you need to look at the community we are serving. Six percent of eligible-aged Africans are enrolled in post-secondary education compared to 70% in developed nations. That number has doubled since 2000 but funding still lags far behind (Economist, August 10, 2019). In the United States alone, we spend $135.5 billion annually on higher education. Sub-Saharan Africa is made up of 46 countries and collectively the number is $5 billion, which represents almost 7% (Grand View Research, 2018).

The Third Chapter Project is now registered as a charitable organization with the Amazon Smile program. If you shop via Amazon, and would like Amazon to donate a percentage of what you spend on the site to Third Chapter, simply go to smile.amazon.com, and click the “Get Started” button. Log in with your Amazon credentials, and, when prompted, pick The Third Chapter Project, Inc, as your charitable organization. Many Amazon purchases are eligible for Amazon Smile donations and if you look underneath the product information you will see a badge “Eligible for amazon smile donation” if this is the case. You don’t need to do anything else—order the product as usual and Amazon will donate 0.5% of eligible purchases to Third Chapter. There are no fees and no extra cost to you! 

Once you’ve selected Third Chapter as your charitable organization, just remember to go to smile.amazon.com in future when you want to shop on Amazon—we suggest bookmarking the link for convenience. It’s an easy way to donate to Third Chapter and to support our mission to facilitate access to leading scholarly content in the social sciences and humanities among under-served academic institutions in Africa. Every donation counts!