Turn That Frown Upside Down

The AmazonSmile program, which routed a portion of the proceeds from Amazon customers' purchases to nonprofit organizations, shut down on February 20, 2023. The program had been supporting nonprofit organizations since 2013. While the program was far from perfect, its closure will leave many organizations looking for pathways toward making up for the loss of funds.

A statement from the company said that "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."

The program contributed half a percent of purchases made by participating customers. That amount comes out to less than 0.04 percent of Amazon's revenue. Over its decade run, a total of about $449 million was dispersed to a range of charities. While that may seem to be a commendable total, it's a drop in the bucket for a company the size of Amazon.

Given that meager percentage, the program could be considered to have been "not so much a charitable-giving program as it was an advertising scheme in sheep’s clothing." In exchange for a comparatively small amount of charitable dollars, nonprofit organizations were lending their name to outreach for Amazon. (You can read a bit more about some criticisms of the program.)

However, the loss of the program will be felt by many organizations, particularly those already struggling to find donation dollars. The program was a passive way to get donations, requiring minimal work from the organization. So its conclusion is a bit of a blow. Some organizations feel they weren't given enough warning about the program ending, or that Amazon wasn't willing to listen to feedback from nonprofits to improve the program. (Amazon will be giving a final donation equivalent to a quarter of each organization's 2022 donations.)

One director of a business coalition said that the transition is similar to what a lot of corporations go through with their giving programs: "A lot of companies start out their corporate community investment programs with what we would refer to as a 'confetti approach'—they give to everyone and everyone's really excited. Then, over time, we see companies moving their strategic pillars to what we would refer to as a more 'concentrated approach.'"

While that may make sense on paper from a corporate vision alignment perspective, it overlooks a lot of the small organizations that were previously benefiting from the program, those organizations that would generally escape the attention of large entities. Much like how businesses merge to leave smaller competitors behind, the same concept seems to happen with corporate philanthropy. With AmazonSmile now off the table, how can these organizations replace those donations?

Several other large retailers offer programs that involve nonprofit organizations with customers. For example, the Target Circle Community Giving program gives shoppers the chance to vote for nonprofits to receive support. The Walmart Spark Good program allows shoppers to round up their purchases at checkout to go toward charity. The program also allows people to purchase items from a nonprofit's registry and have the items shipped straight to the organization. Kroger, the grocery chain giant, lets shoppers link their shopper’s card to an organization.

Of course, after you get your organization set up on the lists of these large companies, you'll need to partake in some sort of campaign to let people know how to participate. Being on the list won't do much if folks don't know that they can look for you, or how to do so. So get the word out!

Consider reaching out to local businesses as well. They may be willing to start a "round up" program (where a transaction is rounded up to the nearest dollar) to help support community organizations. (Such programs have taken a bit of a public relations hit recently due to a lawsuit filed against CVS, but they remain an effective way for organizations to get their name and cause out to the public. In total, these types of programs have raised nearly $5 billion for charity over the last three decades.)

Local restaurants can also be an interesting fundraising partner. Dine-to-donate programs allow nonprofit groups to share a portion of profits on a given night. Many restaurants are also willing to donate food or other supplies for your fundraising efforts.

Also inquire with local sports teams. Some will donate tickets that can be sold to support your organization. Others will share proceeds from their 50/50 raffles. Again, these are great opportunities to spread the word about your organization to new potential donors.

A recent article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy pointed out the passive nature of receiving donations through programs such as AmazonSmile. While the extra money is nice, of course, it comes at the expense of more personal outreach, the kind of interactions that develop potential donors into long-time repeat donors, volunteers, and board members. Take this moment as an opportunity to strengthen your hands-on approach to working with potential donors.

If your organization was receiving a decent amount of support from AmazonSmile, you can try using outreach about that loss of dollars to help bring in new or previous donors to make up for the shortfall. Several of the little guys can help make up for the fall of a giant.

Ideally, your organization can find a balance of passive and involved fundraising to help keep your organization running smoothly, a smile on its metaphorical face.