

Foster said his opinion of the company had soured a bit. While Amazon’s decision to shutter AmazonSmile was unlikely to curtail his use of the shopping service, Mr. “We are always looking at ways to increase our impact,” he said, adding that with so many beneficiaries, the company’s “ability to have an impact was often spread too thin.” After discontinuing the program, Amazon will instead refocus on bigger investments in areas such as affordable housing, computer science education and disaster relief, the company said in the blog post announcing the decision. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, for instance, said in November that it had received $15 million in donations over the lifetime of the program.īut the average annual AmazonSmile donation was far less: about $230 per charity, according to a company spokesman, Patrick Malone. Since 2013, AmazonSmile has distributed about half a billion dollars in donations, the company said.įor some organizations, AmazonSmile donations represented significant support. Amazon’s decision to remove certain charities from the program drew the ire of prominent Republicans, who accused the company and its founder, Jeff Bezos, who was Amazon’s chief executive at the time, of discriminating against conservative groups and indulging in what they described as “woke activism.”
