What da Fudge …. Amazon is ending AmazonSmile 😢

[JoyfulNoise]

Ok, that just makes me not Smile

Feb 2023 AmazonSmile comes to an end.

I guess Jeff Bezos needs more billions to spend on his phallic rockets and his girlfriend …

 

[mknauss]

Just got the email.

Eventually the market part of the company had to make a profit.

 

[Mdragger88]

Very sad
They’re paying too much to “affiliates” I reckon, none left for charity. At least it lasted longer than tipping your driver!

 

[JamesW]

They have to remove the smile logo from the packages or turn it upside down.

 

[Brentr]

Got an email from Amazon saying that they are going to end the donations to charitable organizations thru Amazon Smile.
Comments ??????

 

[Jimrahbe]

Keep in mind that we are not Farce-Book.

No rants please.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Keep in mind that we are not Farce-Book.

No rants please.

Thanks,

Jim R.

Well perhaps this can just be a PSA for those of us that had TFP as their designated charity. I, like most, buy lots of stuff on Amazon and appreciated the small kick back to TFP. However, if Amazon isn’t going to do that anymore, then I may as well utilize direct purchasing through the actual seller’s e-commerce site rather than go through Amazon. Sure, you lose some of the benefits of ease in returns and whatnot, but at least you know that your payment isn’t being skimmed by Amazon to the detriment of a decent seller.

Seems like a short-sighted decision to me but, oh well ….

 

[Flying Tivo]

then I may as well utilize direct purchasing

This has always been my motto, even in google searches, i dont click on the ad, i just go directly to the website.

 

[newdude]

........ but only he didn't say fudge.

I dunno but nothing I bought on Amazon ever seemed to qualify for Smile. I had as many purchases as anyone else, from pantry items to tools to 3rd party vendors, but my account stayed as peanuts.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I think @Leebo would be the one to best tell us all what, if any, impact this would have. My gut feeling says that the Smile probably wasn’t a huge amount of money but it probably wasn’t peanuts either. Never good to lose any kind of revenue stream …

 

[Mdragger88]

If they had of made it set & forget it would have likely had a much greater impact for most 501c3 organizations.
It was a hurdle to get patrons/philanthropists to set it up in the 1st place much less have them remember to re do it every so many months. For many charities it got very overlooked & required a constant campaign to drum up involvement.
For the one I ran we had much better luck with a paypal donation message @ check out & on forms than anything else. I can only assume it’s because it was very simple & easy to click.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

If they had of made it set & forget it would have likely had a much greater impact for most 501c3 organizations.
It was a hurdle to get patrons/philanthropists to set it up in the 1st place much less have them remember to re do it every so many months. For many charities it got very overlooked & required a constant campaign to drum up involvement.
For the one I ran we had much better luck with a paypal donation message @ check out & on forms than anything else. I can only assume it’s because it was very simple & easy to click.

Interesting ... I only ever set it up once for TFP and then it was permanent unless I changed it.

Are you saying it was harder for charities to setup or for people to use?

 

[Leebo]

At the end of the day, if I had to choose one source of revenue to lose, it would be this one. While any decline in funds will hurt an organization, this loss wouldn't be as severe as some may think. To put it into real-life terms, these funds are almost equal to what TFP spends on maintaining a dedicated email server for our mass emailing. Comically enough, this server is on Amazon Web Services. Losing these funds now means TFP will need to figure out a new way to fund these emails each year. Something I’m highly confident we’ll continue to do in the future. Mainly because I’ve already got like 13 of them prepared for next Summer.

While it's unfortunate, this is one issue that I wouldn't stress about. I've already started considering some options and am confident that all will be okay in the long run.

 

[Mdragger88]

Interesting ... I only ever set it up once for TFP and then it was permanent unless I changed it.

Are you saying it was harder for charities to setup or for people to use?

In any mobile app, for the giver (purchaser), it must be renewed twice a year.
To use Amazon smile in the app you also must allow notifications- if you ever turn that off you’re no longer donating. This can get turned off without your knowledge via updates as well.
It’s alot of hoops to check/go through to give a random penny, nickel or dime. It’s also alot of work for the charity having to make videos to explain how to turn it on etc.
Most people nowadays shop through the app or directly through a link that doesn’t go to the smile site when googling the item they wish to purchase so it becomes an extra step they aren’t likely to take. The whole thing left alot to be desired in my opinion.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

In any mobile app, for the giver (purchaser), it must be renewed twice a year.
To use Amazon smile in the app you also must allow notifications- if you ever turn that off you’re no longer donating. This can get turned off without your knowledge via updates as well.
It’s alot of hoops to check/go through to give a random penny, nickel or dime. It’s also alot of work for the charity having to make videos to explain how to turn it on etc.
Most people nowadays shop through the app or directly through a link that doesn’t go to the smile site when googling the item they wish to purchase so it becomes an extra step they aren’t likely to take. The whole thing left alot to be desired in my opinion.

Funny. I have never experienced this. I’m on Apple devices (phone, table, desktop) and I have never had to re-affirm which charity I wanted my Smile reward to go to and my Amazon App auto-magically uses AmazonSmile (I think I set that up once and that was it). Every item I search for stuff it tells me if it’s eligible or not for the Smile program and I get a banner with every completed order telling me how much was generated for TFP. Since setting this up years ago, it’s been seamless.

Not sure what others experience but Amazon Smile always worked effortlessly for me and TFP.

I’d love to believe I’m a genius and just did an amazing job setting it up but it’s more likely I’m some outlier in their “Matrix” and The Agents have been trying to hunt me down ever since …

 

[Mdragger88]

It’s buried in the settings

 

[newdude]

Not sure what others experience but Amazon Smile always worked effortlessly for me and TFP.

Me too. I swapped the regular Amazon bookmark for smile.amazon (dotcom) and anytime i shopped it was seamless. But nothing ever qualified and after more than a year I had donated something ridiculous like 17 cents.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

View attachment 469828
It’s buried in the settings

I can see all that. But what I’m saying is I never remember being asked to renew. Not once. Ever. My settings are all there and I can see a history of my orders and what’s been sent to TFP. But there’s no renewal date and I’ve never had to renew.

Could just be me. I’m not saying everyone else is wrong, Im just saying that what you describe is not my experience with it.

 

[newdude]

I just looked it up. 21 cents.

And according to the account page, the smile website is the only way it works.






Going to the smile page never asked/made me update it and it's still going.

 

[Mdragger88]

I took those screenshots when I was checking- mine was off, no telling for how long!
it says it will warn you but I never recall being alerted.
There was a lot of hoopla about certain devices & operating systems making it more complicated than others a while back.