Amazon Smile is Ending February 23, 2023

[fantastic]

Every charity Amazon dealt with will be more than happy to accept donations directly. Funny how this is about Amazon's "greed" when people weren't really donating anything themselves through this program.

Again Fact check... IT WAS OUR MONEY THAT WAS BEING DONATED!

 

[fantastic]

It's become part of our culture. Talk about and blame others for stuff that we ourselves dont and are too lazy to do.
Great post

We went out of our way to visit the smile.amazon link to specifically Donate our Money. We went with intent & motivation... far from being lazy!

 

[Hall]

My smile donations went to our kids’ school’s pta.

Can't you donate $ directly ? Or more importantly, donate your time ?

Now they just have some hodgepodge “donation” that fits some woke person’s agenda, and I’m not pleased.

Why do you or I or anyone else besides Bezos get to dictate, or think we get to dictate, where Amazon's money/donations go ?

 

[Hall]

Again Fact check... IT WAS OUR MONEY THAT WAS BEING DONATED!

No, we buy an item for $10. Amazon takes $0.25 (or whatever) of what is now their money and donate it. If it's "our" money, please tell me where to get a receipt or list of "my" donation amounts so I can see about claiming it on our tax return.

 

[fantastic]

Who cares.

The folks that were donating their money of course.

 

[kschachn]

Fact is us consumers that went to smile.amazon with our purchase received OUR Hard Earned Money. It wasn't the companies money on the portion that was suppose to support the charity of choice. So IMO the Company had an obligation to donate OUR money as they stated they were going to.

Well that should not be a problem now.

 

[fantastic]

No, we buy an item for $10. Amazon takes $0.25 (or whatever) of what is now their money and donate it. If it's "our" money, please tell me where to get a receipt or list of "my" donation amounts so I can see about claiming it on our tax return.

Amazon told me they would donate a portion of the purchase price to my charity. OUR money is the source period. There would be an email about the "charity impact" you had on your charity.

 

[fantastic]

Well that should not be a problem now.

Yes it is... Very Disappointing.

 

[fantastic]

So what ? Amazon was obligated to give ZERO to charities. You act like this is something they were required to do and cheaped out for as little as they could.

They told us they were going to donate so why say they had no obligation?

 

[Hall]

Amazon told me they would donate a portion of the purchase price to my charity. OUR money is the source period. There would be an email about the "charity impact" you had on your charity.

It's not our money. Sorry if you can't understand that. They were donating THEIR money on behalf of us.

Answer this: Company "X" says they'll match the next 100 donations to a charity at 100% match. You donate $25, the charity gets $50 on behalf of you. How much did you donate ? You probably think you donated $50.

 

[fantastic]

It's not our money. Sorry if you can't understand that. They were donating THEIR money on behalf of us.

Answer this: Company "X" says they'll match the next 100 donations to a charity at 100% match. You donate $25, the charity gets $50 on behalf of you. How much did you donate ? You probably think you donated $50.

Except that's not how this set-up worked. They took a portion of our money from the sale. No one ever expected them to do More than what we paid. Your example is not equivalent. We paid in what they paid out... nothing more.

 

[Rmay635703]

Fallout from Bezos divorce.

 

[alarmguy]

Except that's not how this set-up worked. They took a portion of our money from the sale. No one ever expected them to do More than what we paid. Your example is not equivalent. We paid in what they paid out... nothing more.

I understand your feelings on the subject but instead of being upset, why not just go online and donate let’s say $10 a year to your favorite charity?
I’m sure that money is more than what Amazon would donate it on your behalf and if it’s not just increase it slightly

 

[JHZR2]

Can't you donate $ directly ? Or more importantly, donate your time ?


Why do you or I or anyone else besides Bezos get to dictate, or think we get to dictate, where Amazon's money/donations go ?

Of course I do that.

The fact was that Amazon had the conduit. So I directed it. You’re comparing apples and oranges.

Perhaps you don’t understand that the point of smile was that the folks spending money, which turned into the AMZN overhead that was allocated for donations, could indeed dictate where it was going. The idea of that was good. I appreciated it. And I bought more from Amazon because of it. My money was channeled in part because that was a sliver, however small, of the outcome. Now that it isn’t, I’ll rethink what I buy from Amazon. My money, my decisions.

 

[Hall]

And I bought more from Amazon because of it. My money was channeled in part because that was a sliver, however small, of the outcome. Now that it isn’t, I’ll rethink what I buy from Amazon. My money, my decisions.

When it comes to online shopping, 95% of mine is with Amazon. I even use a browser extension that automatically re-directs me to smile.amazon.com. My choice for donations was mikeroweWORKS, for what it's worth and now that this is ending, my (our) shopping habits won't change though. I appreciated Amazon channeling their money to various charities but as you say, "their money, their decision".

 

[4WD]

Quit Amazon when he bought a newspaper …
Charity options are payroll deduction …

 

[fantastic]

I understand your feelings on the subject but instead of being upset, why not just go online and donate let’s say $10 a year to your favorite charity?
I’m sure that money is more than what Amazon would donate it on your behalf and if it’s not just increase it slightly

Easier said than done... It was a good set-up that didn't cost us poor folk any extra money to spend. I get your point though & appreciate your input. Yes, we can directly donate but this was a good compromise for the ease & lower cost for many people supporting the richest man. I think it was a good trade off & good PR for amazon. Now not so much but they'll surely promote the "Housing Market" b/c well they have amazon "Home" stuff to sell to those people. The money grab is obvious. We are rightfully disappointed & I feel we have a good argument about it imo.

 

[Owen Lucas]

It's a tax write off. Wall Street looks at that favorably compared to (ugh) paying taxes.

Donating to charities could also help with their ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) score as well, if that matters to Amazon.

Overall it's best to donate directly to a vetted organization like a Hospital or Church. St. Jude's is supposed to be legitimate in terms of charity management not taking a 98% salary but donations going directly to the care of children.

 

[Pablo]

Fallout from Bezos divorce.

The smile looked like a wienie, rocket looks like a wienie, lost his wife like Gates, is that guy a wienie or what?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I guess the whole thing was TOO diverse.
I always found it easy to use, both phone and PC. I don't know why people said it was difficult
The link still has smile in it

AmazonSmile: You shop. Amazon gives.

What were some of the questionable charities? The ones I chose were great.

 

[Vil_Riker]

I don't think that is right, but it won't matter unless you itemize deductions and have more than the standard deduction which is higher now than it used to be.

You are correct - I was thinking of the scenario with standard deduction.