A decade after its launch, Amazon is shutting down its online charity service called the AmazonSmile – citing it hadn’t been able to create the impact it was intended for.
Though it’s reported that Amazon has donated around $500 million through this program, to date, it isn’t creating a considerable impact. And it’s because of the sheer number of organizations participating in AmazonSmile, thus all receiving minuscule payments over the years.
AmazonSmile Charity Shutdown
Aside from letting people shop for their favorite products online, Amazon is also doing a ton of charitable activities in society. One among them is through AmazonSmile – a charity program that will let customers donate whenever they make a purchase on the platform.
As per Bloomberg, AmazonSmile has donated almost $500 million to charities over the past 10 years! But, this didn’t make a considerable impact on the program’s goal – as per Amazon. And it’s because of the sheer volume of organizations participating in the program – over a million – sharing all the donations coming from customers.
The same report stated the average amount per donation is only $230 – which is minuscule. Thus, Amazon has decided to shut down the service by February 20th, 2023, stating “the program has not grown to create the impact that [it] had originally hoped”.
Well, Amazon said it’ll focus on other charity works where it can “make meaningful change,” like investing $2 billion to build and preserve affordable housing, delivering 12 million meals this year through food banks, and funding the computer science curriculum for 1 million students across thousands of schools.
Yet, people call this a tactic from the big company for saving costs. Amazon is already planning to cut over 18,000 roles across departments and winding down wings as AmazonSmile may just make it better.
