Amazon will end its AmazonSmile charity program next month. The closure coincides with a series of cost-cutting measures announced by the e-commerce giant, including laying off thousands of employees.
The Amazon Smile program functioned as an overlay for the default Amazon site, allowing users to shop as normal but choose a charity to which the e-retailer donated 0.5 percent of the cost of all eligible products. That’s what Amazon claims more than $377 million has been donated through the scheme since its launch in 2013, but the termination notice suggested that this was not enough to keep the scheme going.
AmazonSmile will end on February 20
“After nearly a decade, the program has not grown to create the impact we initially hoped for,” the company said a press release. “With so many eligible organizations – over 1 million worldwide – our ability to make an impact was often spread too thin.”
AmazonSmile will end on February 20. Charities participating in the program can still receive additional donations until the program closes, and Amazon said it will make a one-time donation to participating charities “equivalent to three months of what they earned through the program in 2022.”