A read through the “About Amazon Smile” section reveals that “Donations are made by the AmazonSmile Foundation and are not tax deductible by you.“ So not only does Amazon get more business, they get the tax deduction too. Same goes with the fake “feel good about your purchase” that Amazon is selling.ĭespite being positioned as a donation, since this is actually a purchase, donors don’t get the tax benefit. Sales, “Buy one, get one free” or “Free gift with purchase” promotions all work on the principal that once they get you into their shopping environment with the bait, you will not just buy the sale item but will spend much more than the retailer loses through the promotion. Rather than an altruistic gesture, it is more like the classic baiting technique used by retailers for years. The real goal is to get people to buy more, thinking they are “doing good”, when in fact the mostly “Made in China” junk they buy does more harm to the environment than the donation they generate. Considering the amount of profit that the company makes on each purchase, 0.5% seems like less than a pittance. No matter what I spend, the resulting donation amount is not as generous as I would like to see. That means I would have to spend $1000 to generate a $5 donation. Through Amazon Smile, 0.5% of a shoppers total purchase is donated to a designated nonprofit. That charity then gets a donation based on how much you spend while shopping. I first heard about AmazonSmile when Beth Kanter mentioned it on Facebook. My issues with them – and with AmazonSmile – are that they are not very generous, they only benefit nonprofits with a large supporter base and they usually have a negative overall ROI for organizations that participate. Unfortunately, for years I have seen nonprofits waste time, energy and hope on similar online charity malls, where supporters must shop through a certain website that then gives portions of proceeds to participating organizations.
The sentiment is admirable – provide exposure to nonprofits on the popular shopping site and donate a portion of sales to worthy causes. The AmazonSmile program, where a small percentage of sales is given to a designated nonprofit, is a nice sentiment but will likely prove a net loss for most participating nonprofit organizations.
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