We here at the Animal Refuge Center have received numerous calls and emails regarding Amazon.com discontinuing their Amazon Smile Program. First of all, we would like to assure you all that this will not affect us in the slightest. We have seen the notice from Amazon Staff titled, “Amazon closing AmazonSmile to focus its philanthropic giving to programs with greater impact”. Now, hearing this, we might take offense and be completely outraged, and withdraw our support, but even if Amazon thinks that animal rescue is a lesser impact program, we still have opportunities. Fortunately, our webmaster had the foresight to think ahead–ARC joined Amazon back in 1994, right after it was founded, because it seemed like a really cool idea. We were also one of the first to join Petfinder.com in 1996, hence our ID KY27. (On reflection, our Webmaster cannot believe she has been in charge of this website for THAT LONG…..)
Amazon has donated more than $377 million globally to charitable organizations through the AmazonSmile program since its launch in 2013. Amazon has supported hundreds of thousands of nonprofits—from global humanitarian efforts and animal welfare groups to school PTAs, hospitals, and more. These organizations received donations from Amazon generated by customers who shopped using AmazonSmile.
Here is the letter Amazon sent to its customers:
Dear customer,
In 2013, we launched AmazonSmile to make it easier for customers to support their favorite charities. However, after almost a decade, the program has not grown to create the impact that we had originally hoped. With so many eligible organizations—more than 1 million globally—our ability to have an impact was often spread too thin.
We are writing to let you know that we plan to wind down AmazonSmile by February 20, 2023. We will continue to pursue and invest in other areas where we’ve seen we can make meaningful change—from building affordable housing to providing access to computer science education for students in underserved communities to using our logistics infrastructure and technology to assist broad communities impacted by natural disasters.
To help charities that have been a part of the AmazonSmile program with this transition, we will be providing them with a one-time donation equivalent to three months of what they earned in 2022 through the program, and they will also be able to accrue additional donations until the program officially closes in February. Once AmazonSmile closes, charities will still be able to seek support from Amazon customers by creating their own wish lists.
As a company, we will continue supporting a wide range of other programs that help thousands of charities and communities across the U.S. For instance:
- Housing Equity Fund: We’re investing $2 billion to build and preserve affordable housing in our hometown communities. In just two years, we’ve provided funding to create more than 14,000 affordable homes—and we expect to build at least 6,000 more in the coming months. These units will host more than 18,000 moderate- to low-income families, many of them with children. In one year alone, our investments have been able to increase the affordable housing stock in communities like Bellevue, Washington and Arlington, Virginia by at least 20%.
- Amazon Future Engineer: We’ve funded computer science curriculum for more than 600,000 students across over 5,000 schools—all in underserved communities. We have plans to reach an additional 1 million students this year. We’ve also provided immediate assistance to 55,000 students in our hometown communities by giving them warm clothes for the winter, food, and school supplies.
- Community Delivery Program: We’ve partnered with food banks in 35 U.S. cities to deliver more than 23 million meals, using our logistics infrastructure to help families in need access healthy food—and we plan to deliver 12 million more meals this year alone. In addition to our delivery services, we’ve also donated 30 million meals in communities across the country.
- Amazon Disaster Relief: We’re using our logistics capabilities, inventory, and cloud technology to provide fast aid to communities affected by natural disasters. For example, we’ve created a Disaster Relief Hub in Atlanta with more than 1 million relief items ready for deployment, our Disaster Relief team has responded to more than 95 natural disasters, and we’ve donated more than 20 million relief products to nonprofits assisting communities on the ground.
- Community giving: We support hundreds of local nonprofits doing meaningful work in cities where our employees and their families live. For example, each year we donate hundreds of millions of dollars to organizations working to build stronger communities, from youth sport leagues, to local community colleges, to shelters for families experiencing homelessness.
We’ll continue working to make a difference in many ways, and our long-term commitment to our communities remains the same—we’re determined to do every day better for our customers, our employees, and the world at large.
Thank you for being an Amazon customer.
Our webmaster enrolled us in Amazon.com nearly 30 years ago in 1994, enrolled us in AmazonSmile and created the Charity Lists in 2013, and our vision and our structure does stand the test of time. With our Affiliate account and other volunteers adding to our Charity List of products in recent months, you can continue to shop Amazon (as long as you please use these links here on OUR WEBSITE) and know that you are supporting the Animal Refuge Center, Inc. no matter what!!!
Please spread the word about our website and our many, many ways to donate and help homeless pets. If Amazon changes their mind about their decision at some time in the future, ALL our links will REMAIN in place; even if they do not, your purchases will CONTINUE to make a difference in finding Forever Homes for Homeless Pets.
The BEST thing we can do is to promote our website and our mission harder than ever before. It’s time.
We could never do what we do without the help of our loving and dedicated supporters!
And be sure to check out our Pets For Adoption page!! While We Have Time, Let Us Do Good.
