Amazon Smile Program Canceled

[ntindle]

Summary

 The Amazon Smile Charity program has been canceled. 

 

Quotes

Quote

 We are writing to let you know that we plan to wind down AmazonSmile by February 20, 2023. We will continue to pursue and invest in other areas where we’ve seen we can make meaningful change—from building affordable housing to providing access to computer science education for students in underserved communities to using our logistics infrastructure and technology to assist broad communities impacted by natural disasters.

 

My thoughts

I’m overall really surprised by this. I’ve used this extensively for as long as I’ve been a prime customer so it’s really disheartening to hear that Wikipedia will no longer be getting donations from things I buy on Amazon. 

 

Sources

 I’m not sure how to share an email but here’s the body of the message:

Dear customer,   In 2013, we launched AmazonSmile to make it easier for customers to support their favorite charities. However, after almost a decade, the program has not grown to create the impact that we had originally hoped. With so many eligible organizations—more than 1 million globally—our ability to have an impact was often spread too thin.   We are writing to let you know that we plan to wind down AmazonSmile by February 20, 2023. We will continue to pursue and invest in other areas where we’ve seen we can make meaningful change—from building affordable housing to providing access to computer science education for students in underserved communities to using our logistics infrastructure and technology to assist broad communities impacted by natural disasters.   To help charities that have been a part of the AmazonSmile program with this transition, we will be providing them with a one-time donation equivalent to three months of what they earned in 2022 through the program, and they will also be able to accrue additional donations until the program officially closes in February. Once AmazonSmile closes, charities will still be able to seek support from Amazon customers by creating their own wish lists.   As a company, we will continue supporting a wide range of other programs that help thousands of charities and communities across the U.S. For instance: • Housing Equity Fund: We’re investing $2 billion to build and preserve affordable housing in our hometown communities. In just two years, we’ve provided funding to create more than 14,000 affordable homes—and we expect to build at least 6,000 more in the coming months. These units will host more than 18,000 moderate- to low-income families, many of them with children. In one year alone, our investments have been able to increase the affordable housing stock in communities like Bellevue, Washington and Arlington, Virginia by at least 20%. • Amazon Future Engineer: We’ve funded computer science curriculum for more than 600,000 students across over 5,000 schools—all in underserved communities. We have plans to reach an additional 1 million students this year. We’ve also provided immediate assistance to 55,000 students in our hometown communities by giving them warm clothes for the winter, food, and school supplies. • Community Delivery Program: We’ve partnered with food banks in 35 U.S. cities to deliver more than 23 million meals, using our logistics infrastructure to help families in need access healthy food – and we plan to deliver 12 million more meals this year alone. In addition to our delivery services, we’ve also donated 30 million meals in communities across the country. • Amazon Disaster Relief: We’re using our logistics capabilities, inventory, and cloud technology to provide fast aid to communities affected by natural disasters. For example, we’ve created a Disaster Relief Hub in Atlanta with more than 1 million relief items ready for deployment, our Disaster Relief team has responded to more than 95 natural disasters, and we’ve donated more than 20 million relief products to nonprofits assisting communities on the ground. • Community Giving: We support hundreds of local nonprofits doing meaningful work in cities where our employees and their families live. For example, each year we donate hundreds of millions of dollars to organizations working to build stronger communities, from youth sport leagues, to local community colleges, to shelters for families experiencing homelessness. We’ll continue working to make a difference in many ways, and our long-term commitment to our communities remains the same—we’re determined to do every day better for our customers, our employees, and the world at large.   Thank you for being an Amazon customer.

[AlTech]

Tbh I'm not surprised. The premise of Amazon not advertising Amazon Smile or not re-redirecting customers to use Amazon Smile meant only people who actually bookmarked or remembered to go to it used it on desktop.

 

On mobile it's easier to use but personally I never remember to use it on desktop.

[TetraSky]

... I... I had no idea this was even a thing.

[OddOod]

3 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

only people who actually bookmarked

I used this
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/smile-always/jgpmhnmjbhgkhpbgelalfpplebgfjmbf?hl=en

[wasab]

if it is like most charity, pretty sure less than 30% of the money goes to people in need and rest goes to pay for organization executives, trustees, and marketing/fundraisings. 

[vertigo220]

When I actually shopped Amazon a decent amount, I just set up a redirect for the cart link. Personally, I think this is a bunch of BS. I'm pretty sure Amazon only did this for PR, and they obviously preferred people not to use it, since, as mentioned, it wasn't highly publicized or obvious and it they did nothing to remind people to use it. I think it's funny how they would always send out the emails talking about how much money has been donated to your charity of choice, how much good it's doing, and now they're claiming it wasn't doing much good because it was spread too thin. Who care's if it's spread thin? If it results in several hundred charities getting any amount of money they otherwise wouldn't, then it's helping and it's worth it.

 

And I'd much rather be able to select where the money goes, partly to choose something I feel is important and that aligns with my politics and principles and partly to make sure it's a charity that uses donations effectively, to avoid the problem @wasab mentioned, than to have a company, especially one like Amazon, make the choice for me. Just another reason to shop elsewhere whenever possible. At least they're being fairly generous with the "severance" and are continuing to donate, but I'm tempted to think I'd rather they just drop the donations altogether or at least give a non-BS reason for the changes than to blow smoke like this.

 

I'd be very curious to see a comparison between what they've donated on average per year over the past several years through Smile and what they're going to be donating through this new system. The cynic in me suspects it will be much lower with the change, and that's not even accounting for whether it will be ongoing or a one-time thing.

[AlTech]

14 hours ago, wasab said:

if it is like most charity, pretty sure less than 30% of the money goes to people in need and rest goes to pay for organization executives, trustees, and marketing/fundraisings. 

It went to a charity of the user's choosing so it wasn't that bad if the user picked a reputable charity.

 

Now the money they'll donate to charities is going to reputable charities specifically chosen by Amazon.

[starcar]

8 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

It went to a charity of the user's choosing so it wasn't that bad if the user picked a reputable charity.

 

Now the moey they'll donate to charities is going to reputable charities specifically chosen by Amazon.

I think he meant that even reputable charities are no stranger to having 50+% of the money wasted in overhead costs like he mentioned.