In a surprise move, Amazon announced today that it will be discontinuing its AmazonSmile charity program next month. The program, which allows customers to donate 0.5% of their purchases to charities of their choice, has been an immensely popular way of giving back since its launch in 2013.
The website States that AmazonSmile has been discontinued in order to “focus on new, more engaging ways to support the causes customers care about”, implying that the company has something else up their sleeve. What this could be is still a mystery, but many are speculating that Amazon will be introducing a new and improved charity giving program in the near future.
The current program allowed customers to choose from over one million charities and donate their purchases to them. Despite its popularity, AmazonSmile was always limited in the amounts it could raise for charities. With the program about to be discontinued, charities are now left in the wake of the decision, and will miss out on a portion of much-needed donations.
Although the company has already made a number of donations on its own, it’s likely that a majority of people used AmazonSmile in order to donate to their favorite charities. For now, those who still wish to donate to charities will have to do so directly or find another service that offers what AmazonSmile did. There’s no denying that the loss of the program will be a blow to the cause, but perhaps the newfound focus on a new program could offer a bigger and better option for charity-minded shoppers.
For now, we’ll just have to wait and see what Amazon plans to do to continue its support for charities in the coming months.
