Amazon’s surprise decision to shut down its AmazonSmile donation program has left thousands of its nonprofit beneficiaries disappointed and concerned about finding ways to replace the funding.
The e-commerce giant launched AmazonSmile in 2013, contributing 0.5% of every purchase made by participating customers to the charity of their choosing. As of 2022, the company said it has donated $449 million to various charities.
Before it ends the program next month, Amazon says, it will provide a final donation to each of the 1 million-plus nonprofits that used AmazonSmile, equivalent to 25% of what the charity received from the program in 2022.
Some of the e-commerce giant’s competitors, including Walmart and Target, have community donation programs that somewhat resemble AmazonSmile.
But nonprofits say they feel let down.
Tenisha Taylor says she felt Amazon insulted her Chicago-area nonprofit’s work by saying its program hadn’t provided enough of an impact for its charitable beneficiaries.
“You haven’t talked to me,” said Taylor, who founded the Ezekiel Taylor Foundation, which provides scholarships to young Black men from Chicago whose lives have been affected by gun violence. “You haven’t seen my bottom line of impact of these brilliant young men that I have walking on campuses across this country.”
Taylor noted the huge disparity between the wealth of Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, and the small amounts that nonprofits use to try to make their communities healthier and safer.
“We are making [Amazon] rich — we are,” said Taylor, referring to communities of color like hers. “At the very least, they can be good corporate citizens to pay it forward in the communities that are patronizing them.”
Amazon’s decision to end the program was part of a strategic shift to support initiatives that work on a larger scale, like its $2 billion contribution to build affordable housing, said Patrick Malone, a company spokesperson. After 10 years, he said, it was time to reevaluate the program. He said the move is not a criticism of the nonprofits it supported.
The company also recently announced that it would lay off 18,000 employees and cut other less-profitable parts of its business.
Taylor and other nonprofit founders say they are angry that Amazon didn’t give them an earlier warning about the program’s end. Many nonprofits had promoted AmazonSmile in their fundraising appeals because the program provided them with a passive revenue stream from Amazon customers.
Lauren Wagner, executive director of the Long Island Arts Alliance, based in Patchogue, New York, said she had encouraged the nonprofits she supports to sign up for AmazonSmile. Now, she’s concerned that her organization doesn’t know the identity of those customers and wants Amazon to seek permission to share that information with nonprofits.
Malone said Amazon had notified customers of the program’s end and has no plans to share customer information with nonprofits.
Kari Niedfeldt-Thomas, a managing director of Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose, a business coalition that advises companies on social responsibility issues, said she was not surprised by Amazon’s decision to eliminate the program.
“A lot of companies start out their corporate community investment programs with what we would refer to as a ‘confetti approach’ — they give to everyone and everyone’s really excited,” Niedfeldt-Thomas said. “Then, over time, we see companies moving their strategic pillars to what we would refer to as a more ‘concentrated approach.’ “
In its letter to customers, Amazon said it would “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.”
Niedfeldt-Thomas said her coalition considers companies that donate more than 1% of their pretax profits to be “good corporate citizens.” According to Amazon’s 2021 financials, it donates much more than that. Malone said the company wants to focus its philanthropic work around its strengths — by, for example, mobilizing large responses during disasters or distributing food aid.
The business coalition’s research for 2021 shows that corporate donations were down slightly compared to 2020 when companies accelerated contributions to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, Niedfeldt-Thomas said. She noted that the current economic climate, with inflation and recession concerns, may also cause further decline.
