Amazon Smiles charity donation program ending
STONEHAM - Internet giant Amazon is ending a long-time program called Amazon Smiles that helped to fund charities and non-profits across the country. In a blog post on Wednesday, the company says it didn't grow to create the impact they expected.
"For small organizations like ours it's a hit," says Beth Corr, the Co-Founding Director of Missing Dogs Massachusetts, an organization dedicated to reuniting lost pups with their owners. "It's really nice, even if it's just a couple of hundreds of dollars a quarter."
Amazon Smiles is a charity donation program that allows customers to donate a small percentage of certain purchases to the charity of their choosing. That program will end on February 20.
Missing dogs of Massachusetts uses funds from the program to keep their operations going. They have cameras up all over the state and need traps to find the dogs. They find more than 1,000 dogs a year with just a limited staff.
"The economy being what it is and discretionary income, things may be tight for people who may donate in a different period. Donations aren't what they once were," tells Corr.
The Book Oasis in Stoneham is pushing back against Amazon by utilizing a program of their own through Bookshop.org. It's a registry for charities and non-profits. They can sign up for items they may need that the store sells. The community can purchase those items off of the registry. The charity will get the items and a small portion of the sale.
"Say the fire department wanted extra plush animals to give away to kids when they are experiencing a tragedy. They can put that on their registry, and the registry gets distributed to the community. The community buys it, it goes from our warehouse, then it goes to the fire department. A portion of the cash goes to the fire department too," explains Debbie Sullivan, owner of the Book Oasis. "This is a great opportunity for local businesses to take over the market they are kind of taking from us."
