Dozens of Bay Area charities to be impacted by end of AmazonSmile donation program
TAMPA, Fla. - A global charity effort will soon come to end. Amazon is officially ending its charity donation program, AmazonSmile on February 20.
Since the program launched in 2013, shoppers have been able to choose from a list of one-million non-profits, including dozens in the Tampa Bay region, to benefit on Smile.Amazon.com, earning that organization 0.5% of a purchase at no added cost.
While the announcement of the program ending came at the same time the company also announced it was laying off 18,000 employees and cutting other less-profitable parts of its business, a spokesperson said the decision was part of a strategic shift to support initiatives that work on a larger scale.
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'After almost a decade, the program has not grown to create the impact that we had originally hoped," an announcement on the mega e-commerce company’s website says. With so many eligible organizations the ability to have an impact was often spread too thin."
Amazon is ending its AmazonSmile program, which benefits non-profits across the country.
Many organizations around the nation reacted on social media, saying they were a bit let down, and that these donations are incredibly helpful and add up to make an impact in local communities.
CEO of the Humane Society of Tampa Bay, Sherry Silk, said, while fundraising from AmazonSmile didn't make up a massive portion of their funds, it still brought in about $44,000 since they joined, they registered in 2015. That's extra money they can dig into for animal food, medical expenses, and general operation costs.
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"Any time that we lose funding from whatever the source is, whether it's a grant or regular donor or whatever, you know, you're sad about that because you have to make it up somewhere," Silk shared. "We are not a tax-supported organization, we're a nonprofit, so we have to raise the money that we need to take care of the almost 13,000 animals that we care for, so I was disappointed."
Kristina Moreta, development director for environmental volunteer-based non-profit Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful agreed. Even though AmazonSmile only earned them a little more than $200 a year, they used it for supplies to pick up trash around the city.
File image of dog at the Humane Society of Tampa Bay.
"Any kind of money or any kind of item donated towards us, it does really help a lot because that's picking up one more bottle off the street...that's picking up one more scooter out of the water, so it really does help no matter what," Moreta added.
Moreta, and Thomas Mantz, the CEO & President of Feeding Tampa Bay who's also on AmazonSmile, mentioned a unique point about Tampa in this situation.
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Several Amazon facilities are in the Bay Area, and even though earnings will be lost through AmazonSmile, volunteer service hours and the extra food and supplies the employees donate to local charities year-round will be just as valuable.
Amazon has several facilities in the Bay Area.
"Amazon is a tremendous supporter of food banks in general," Mantz said. "We have Amazon warehouses here when they have excess capacity, just like grocery stores do, they donate that capacity to us. We then put those goods and materials into the community. So Amazon's helping us in other ways that are far larger and more significant than the AmazonSmile program would have been."
"We do have Amazon actually volunteer with us quite often," Moreta added. 'The volunteer price right now per service hour is, actually a little bit over $29. So, when we looked at it based on how much we actually get per year versus volunteer hours per year, that actually we get a lot more technically value for their volunteer service."
A volunteer with Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful is picking up trash. It's a non-profit that will be impacted by the end of AmazonSmile.
In its letter to customers, Amazon said the charities that are part of the AmazonSmile program can continue to earn donations until the program ends on February 20. The charities will also receive a one-time donation equivalent to three months of what they earned in 2022 through the program.
Amazon will also still enable charities to create wish lists - where you can buy items on a list the charity creates and send it to them directly.
A woman with Tampa Bay Beautiful searches Amazon's website.
Amazon reps also did say they’ll continue their existing charity programs, including supporting food banks, disaster relief, affordable housing initiatives, and science curriculum — plus some new, not-yet-announced initiatives they’re exploring.
"We choose to believe that Amazon wants to support their communities at their end, and if they have new plans, we're hopeful that they'll include making sure our neighbors and friends who are struggling have some more support," Mantz said.