Save and Keep AmazonSmile for Charities

Save and Keep AmazonSmile for Charities

Started
January 18, 2023
Petition to
Signatures: 4,935Next Goal: 5,000
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Why this petition matters

Started by Owen Fritz

Amazon as of 1-8-23 has stated that they will be closing AmazonSmile to focus its philanthropic giving to programs with greater impact. This news is very sadly received by many different charities with about 1 months’ notice that this program will be terminated. While we are very appreciative of Amazon for the philanthropic giving that they have done this is very disheartening indeed.

There are people can't give to their favorite charity outright because they do not have the funds to do so, but they could at least make an impact by having a portion of their purchases on everyday items go towards their favorite charity. Also, let’s not forget about the net sales and earnings from Amazon in 2022. From this website on investor relations with Amazon it states:

Net sales increased 15% to $127.1 billion in the third quarter, compared with $110.8 billion in third quarter 2021. Excluding the $5.0 billion unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales increased 19% compared with third quarter 2021.

Let us also not forget that Amazon’s profit soars 220 percent as pandemic drives shopping online which yielded around 8.1 Billion in profits.  (The New York Times Website)

The announcement was sent via email and can be found on this website. The announcement reads as follows:

Amazon closing AmazonSmile to focus its philanthropic giving to programs with greater impact
Written by Amazon Staff

The company, which ranks among the top corporate philanthropists in the U.S., will continue to pursue and invest in other areas where it can make meaningful change—from building affordable housing to providing access to computer science education for students in underserved communities.
Today we started sending the below email to AmazonSmile customers, and we want to share it here, too:

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.

This petition just clearly states that you want to let Amazon know that you do not support the decision to terminate the Amazon Smile program that has helped so many small charities over the years.  

 

 

 

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Signatures: 4,935Next Goal: 5,000
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