For almost a decade Amazon has been running a program called “Amazon Smile”. Here is the basics of how it worked, you shopped at a Amazon as usual but you went to smile.amazon.com and selected a charity/non-profit of your choice. Amazon would then direct a portion of their charitable giving to that organization, costing you nothing (of course the cost of their charitable donations is built into pricing, just like “free” shipping). What was truly remarkable is that you could pick from a very wide range of organizations, from the obvious big money machine “charities” to a little local Christian youth center near us. Me being me, and as someone who buys a ton of stuff from Amazon for Amish friends, I selected the Gun Owners Foundation, a division of the Gun Owners of America. It has been quite a nice fundraiser for GOA, I received this email last December….
Nearly half a million bucks. Not bad. According to Amazon I have generated a little over $320 of that alone. I was shocked that they allowed groups like GOA and the Firearms Policy Coalition to raise money this way. That the people running Amazon would allow funds to go to gun rights and Second Amendment groups was terribly out of character.
Alas, all good things come to an end and last month Amazon sent out an email explaining that they were doing away with the program. Their rationale? Too many different charitable organizations were getting funds.
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.
Keep in mind that they have distributed over $400 million since the program started. I suspect the vast majority of that went to the big, obvious charities, ones they call “spotlight” charities…
The Red Cross, St. Jude, the Humane Society, all big billion dollar outfits but I am confident that what irritated them was the idea of groups like GOA and FPC getting funds from purchases people were going to make anyway. So they are taking back control of their philanthropy
Now they will be funding stuff like the “Housing Equity Fund”, and you of course know “equity” is code for “giving to everyone but White people”. Also the “Future Engineer” program for “underserved” communities, and they don’t mean White schools in Appalachia. Food banks and Amazon Disaster Relief, which does make some sense since Amazon has a huge logistics infrastructure…
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.
Who else has that kind of system in place? If they can deliver random stuff to me same day or next day out in the country, I am sure they can get disaster supplies to affected areas faster than even FEMA. There is also a generic catch-all category called “community giving” for stuff like “youth sports leagues”, aka “black clergy grift”, and homeless shelters. On the bright side, they are giving the current charities a lump sum….
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.
So that is probably around 30 grand for GOA once the program closes on Monday the 20th. They had a nice run but like most self-appointed elites they simply don’t trust the dirty peasants to make any decisions. I will probably start to make regular donations to GOA and other groups now that Amazon Smile is out of the picture. I have already set up small donations to American Renaissance and VDare plus annually for Gab and a few subscriptions to guys like The Zman and Paul Waggener. It is important to set aside some disposable income to the people who are advocating on our behalf.
Anyway, I just thought that was interesting and it’s too bad. I never bought anything because GOA got a few pennies on the sale but it was nice to direct some shekels their way.
https://www.revolver.news/2023/02/in-high-school-shows-failing-d-c-and-baltimore-schools-how-to-be-clean-safe-and-successful-while-staying-under-budget/
Here is another feel Indiana good story. It amazing what you can accomplish without niggers.
What you said. Awhile ago I started using Amazon as a product finder then would buy direct or elsewhere anyway. That’s after wading through 3 pages of Chinese knockoffs of Made in China “American” products. Le sigh. Those times the purchase went to Amazon some macaroni points went to GOA. We already have a list of places to donate to as finances allow.
I’ve managed to make it this far in life without ever once directly patronizing Amazon so it looks like good odds I’ll make it all the way. (it’s certain that some other businesses I’ve patronized use AWS for web hosting) Don’t feel like I’m missing out.
In our area shipping from the zon still takes 5-7 days so it really has zero benifit to buy from them. I’ve never needed them and never will.
Amazon is hurting. They are cutting back on a number of perks for their own employees, and there are other subtle clues that their razor-thin profit margin is not as profitable as before. Eliminating the charity angle is just one of those.
For another, they no longer offer free UPS pickup on returns. We don’t return much, compared to how much we’ve bought from Big A, but they used to pick up our returns for free from our doorstep. Now we have to take them to Kohl’s or to an Amazon locker location. No big deal, really, but if you insist on having the UPS guy pick up your Amazon return from your door, it will cost you $7.95.
And Amazon is not the guaranteed lowest-cost provider any longer. I’ve found that especially for bulkier items, the “free shipping for Amazon Prime customers” cost of an item such as black oil sunflower birdseed is now greater than just running around to Lowe’s or Walmart and picking it up there.
Amazon had quite a long, successful run, and they sure looked monolithic and invincible in their day. But their day has passed, and good riddance. Let’s bring back the Mom and Pop local shops that were the very backbone of American retail until the 21st century. I’ll willingly pay a little extra to buy those coffee filters or 16 penny bright common nails from my local neighborhood store rather than giving all my business to Bezos, Inc.
Starve the beast. It’s the only way to maintain control over the leviathan that would rule over us.
A few years ago, VDARE, survivalblog, theimaginativeconservative and I’m sure others had affiliate accounts on amazon. It’s my understanding that affiliate sale send a larger kickback than the smile program ever did. Does anyone on our side still use the affiliate program to raise funds?
Well. Color me surprised.