AmazonSmile is closing...

t-noah

Well-Known Member
Feb 2, 2007
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...on Feb.20, 2023, but will continue to operate and give a portion of your Amazon sales to your charity of choice (ISU?, WeWill Collective, Gridiron club, etc.), but only through Feb. 19th.

So get any last minute sales in now, to Smile, if you want some to go to your charity.

To bad. It seemed like it was just getting a head of steam here, on CF. :(

Here is the letter I rec'd from Amazon, today:
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.
 

Trice

Well-Known Member
Apr 1, 2010
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I don't know what they were paying out collectively, but once in awhile I'd get an email from AmazonSmile telling me what my charity had been paid out in the last quarter/year/whatever and it was pretty measly. It may well be that it was barely worth the administrative hassle for most of these charities too.

Then again, you always had to make sure to opt in to AmazonSmile on every purchase rather than it simply working automatically, and we almost always simply forgot. I'd guess most others do too. Making that change alone probably would have diverted tens, maybe hundreds, of millions more to charity.
 

CrossCyed

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Mar 30, 2006
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I don't know what they were paying out collectively, but once in awhile I'd get an email from AmazonSmile telling me what my charity had been paid out in the last quarter/year/whatever and it was pretty measly. It may well be that it was barely worth the administrative hassle for most of these charities too.

Then again, you always had to make sure to opt in to AmazonSmile on every purchase rather than it simply working automatically, and we almost always simply forgot. I'd guess most others do too. Making that change alone probably would have diverted tens, maybe hundreds, of millions more to charity.
It could actually result in more money for someplace like WeWill if it makes someone who thought they were contributing something by spending fifty bucks a year on Amazon to maybe switch to a contribution directly to the organization
 

Farnsworth

Well-Known Member
Apr 11, 2006
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Des Moines, IA
I don't know what they were paying out collectively, but once in awhile I'd get an email from AmazonSmile telling me what my charity had been paid out in the last quarter/year/whatever and it was pretty measly. It may well be that it was barely worth the administrative hassle for most of these charities too.

Then again, you always had to make sure to opt in to AmazonSmile on every purchase rather than it simply working automatically, and we almost always simply forgot. I'd guess most others do too. Making that change alone probably would have diverted tens, maybe hundreds, of millions more to charity.

See I did not know this, I thought you just signed up and all your purchases went towards that. So they were already keeping those portions of my purchase, and still need to scrape the bottom of the barrel for even more.

I get it though that getting such weak amounts can cause more trouble than it's worth.
 

Trice

Well-Known Member
Apr 1, 2010
6,898
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It could actually result in more money for someplace like WeWill if it makes someone who thought they were contributing something by spending fifty bucks a year on Amazon to maybe switch to a contribution directly to the organization

Why would anyone buy something from Amazon solely for the purpose of a charity getting a tiny fraction of it?
 

CrossCyed

Well-Known Member
Mar 30, 2006
10,827
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Why would anyone buy something from Amazon solely for the purpose of a charity getting a tiny fraction of it?
Ha, my argument is that if someone thinks they're doing much by using Smile to buy a small handful of items a year, it's not a needle mover. 0.5% of eligible purchases get donated so $1000 makes about $5 of impact.

What is AmazonSmile?

AmazonSmile is a simple way for you to support your favorite charitable organization every time you shop, at no cost to you. AmazonSmile is available at smile.amazon.com on your web browser and can be activated in the Amazon Shopping app for iOS and Android phones. When you shop AmazonSmile, you’ll find the exact same low prices, vast selection and convenient shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added benefit that AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your eligible purchases to the charitable organization of your choice. You can choose from over one million organizations to support.
 

Trice

Well-Known Member
Apr 1, 2010
6,898
11,256
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See I did not know this, I thought you just signed up and all your purchases went towards that. So they were already keeping those portions of my purchase, and still need to scrape the bottom of the barrel for even more.

I get it though that getting such weak amounts can cause more trouble than it's worth.

You have to shop through smile.amazon.com. If you simply go to amazon.com you aren't shopping through AmazonSmile and it doesn't count.

I just looked up my stats. We're Amazon Prime members with ~35 orders per year. Our lifetime generation for AmazonSmile (keeping in mind, we always forget to use it) is $3.42. My chosen charity has received less than $500 lifetime from all donors. US charities have received in aggregate $400 million, with non-US charities earning about another $50 million.
 

Cyclonepride

Thought Police
Staff member
Apr 11, 2006
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A pineapple under the sea
www.oldschoolradical.com
I'm sure it has nothing to do with economic conditions that have them cutting thousands of jobs.

Not making the impact they want, but they list donations to date at $400,000,000. I'd say that makes an impact. The charity we chose (A Heinz 57) had received $20,000. That's impactful for a shelter like that.
 

Trice

Well-Known Member
Apr 1, 2010
6,898
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I'm sure it has nothing to do with economic conditions that have them cutting thousands of jobs.

Not making the impact they want, but they list donations to date at $400,000,000. I'd say that makes an impact. The charity we chose (A Heinz 57) had received $20,000. That's impactful for a shelter like that.

$45 million per year averaged out over the life of the program, divided among (potentially) 1.5 million charities. Peanuts for a company like Amazon.

Tell your shelter to get on MacKenzie Scott's radar. She's already given away 25+ times what AmazonSmile has.
 

KidSilverhair

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Dec 18, 2010
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Rapids of the Cedar
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Then again, you always had to make sure to opt in to AmazonSmile on every purchase rather than it simply working automatically, and we almost always simply forgot. I'd guess most others do too. Making that change alone probably would have diverted tens, maybe hundreds, of millions more to charity.
My browser bookmark to Amazon was directly to my signon at smile.Amazon.com, so I automatically made my contribution every time I bought something. I just figured everybody did it that way.
 
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RustShack

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Jan 27, 2010
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I don't know what they were paying out collectively, but once in awhile I'd get an email from AmazonSmile telling me what my charity had been paid out in the last quarter/year/whatever and it was pretty measly. It may well be that it was barely worth the administrative hassle for most of these charities too.

Then again, you always had to make sure to opt in to AmazonSmile on every purchase rather than it simply working automatically, and we almost always simply forgot. I'd guess most others do too. Making that change alone probably would have diverted tens, maybe hundreds, of millions more to charity.
Weird mine does it automatically. I use the app on my phone.
 

Farnsworth

Well-Known Member
Apr 11, 2006
16,943
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Des Moines, IA
$45 million per year averaged out over the life of the program, divided among (potentially) 1.5 million charities. Peanuts for a company like Amazon.

Tell your shelter to get on MacKenzie Scott's radar. She's already given away 25+ times what AmazonSmile has.

but it's also a company that depends on the peanut model in high scale. Hence the front line factory workers pissing in waterbottles and whatnot.
 

Cyclonepride

Thought Police
Staff member
Apr 11, 2006
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A pineapple under the sea
www.oldschoolradical.com
$45 million per year averaged out over the life of the program, divided among (potentially) 1.5 million charities. Peanuts for a company like Amazon.

Tell your shelter to get on MacKenzie Scott's radar. She's already given away 25+ times what AmazonSmile has.
It is peanuts, but I'm not buying the Amazon excuse. It's a cost cutting move, plain and simple. If it's not that, it's that they prefer more control on where it goes. Either way, they suck.
 

Farnsworth

Well-Known Member
Apr 11, 2006
16,943
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Des Moines, IA
It is peanuts, but I'm not buying the Amazon excuse. It's a cost cutting move, plain and simple. If it's not that, it's that they prefer more control on where it goes. Either way, they suck.

Yes it's small amounts since it's spread so far and wide, yet at least those using it had a connection. Now they can do what they want, spend it where they want for kickbacks, or just pocket it.

It's to bad people are already trapped. All of my family who is barely tech savy relies on Amazon and Sam's Clubs boxes coming in daily for EVERYTHING.
 
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t-noah

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Feb 2, 2007
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It could actually result in more money for someplace like WeWill if it makes someone who thought they were contributing something by spending fifty bucks a year on Amazon to maybe switch to a contribution directly to the organization
True and not true. Both.

I will be adding a small donation to the WeWill. I realize now there is no 'free' donation any longer (as of Feb. 20), as miniscule as it might have been.

For me, I thought it was a pretty good thing, for a large company like Amazon to do Smile, It made me subconsciously, and consciously want to purchase through them, because of it.

Now it is gone. Unfortunate.