Amazon is closing its AmazonSmile charity platform

Amazon is shutting down its AmazonSmile charity program next month. The closure coincides with a variety of cost-cutting efforts announced by the e-commerce giant that includes laying off thousands of employees.

The AmazonSmile program functioned like an overlay for the standard Amazon site, allowing users to shop as normal, but select a charity to which the e-retailer donated 0.5 percent of the cost of all eligible products. Amazon claims that over $377 million has been donated through the scheme since it launched in 2013, but in its closure notice suggested this was not sufficient to keep the scheme running.

“After almost a decade, the program has not grown to create the impact that we had originally hoped,” the company said in a press release. “With so many eligible organizations — more than 1 million globally — our ability to have an impact was often spread too thin.” 

AmazonSmile will shut down on February 20th. Charities enrolled in the program will still be able to receive additional donations until the program closes, and Amazon said it will be making a one-time donation to participating charities “equivalent to three months of what they earned in 2022 through the program.”