Amazon discontinues charity program AmazonSmile

Amazon confirmed on Wednesday it will close its charity donation program AmazonSmile. It is a medium where the tech giant can share part of their revenues with charity. This is the company’s latest strategy to reduce costs.

The online retailer behemoth recently announced its plan to lay off 18,000 employees. Like other tech companies, Amazon also massively hired during the pandemic.

Amazon is ending its AmazonSmile program in which you could designate a charity to receive a small percentage of all your Amazon purchases (I have used this for years) pic.twitter.com/HKIlyW9mHt

— Steve Lookner (@lookner) January 19, 2023

Through AmazonSmile, every customer’s purchase donates a percentage to their chosen charities. Amazon said it had donated an estimated $500 million to charities since the program launched in 2013. This move of shutting down the charity program comes after CEO Andy Jassy reviewed the company’s total expenses amid the worsening economic status.

Amazon said, “After almost a decade, the program has not grown to create the impact we had originally hoped for. With so many eligible organizations — more than 1 million globally — our ability to have an impact was often spread too thin.” In addition, the regular donation to charities was less than $230.

Amazon’s plans

Although the company will remove AmazonSmile, it will still invest in sectors where it can “make meaningful change.” Amazon plans to still extend its help. It will still assist in natural disaster relief, community assistance, and affordable housing drives.

Amazon is ending its charity donation program, called AmazonSmile. https://t.co/HAvJNmsbgn

— CNBC (@CNBC) January 19, 2023

Moving forward, the online retailer shared some of its future plans. It pledged to fund the Computer Science curriculum for $1 million students across several schools. This year, it also plans to deliver 12 million meals via food banks. In addition, Amazon will invest $2 billion to build affordable houses.

As the Amazon CEO tried to balance expenses, the company stopped experimental projects like video calling gadgets for kids and telehealth services. The tech giant also halted some warehouse expansions.