amazon smile logo on smartphone

Goodbye Amazon Smile; Hello Charity Auctions Today

A new nonprofit fundraising strategy is in store for thousands after being blind-sighted by Amazon’s sudden closure of its charity fundraising program.

Nonprofits received the news via email on January 18, 2023, that AmazonSmile would end on February 20, 2023. It was too short notice for them to replace the funding source strategically and quickly. A new nonprofit fundraising strategy is in the works for thousands of nonprofits, with many leaning toward online auction platforms like Charity Auctions Today.

Nonprofits that relied on Amazon’s charity program for funding over the last ten years are scrambling to find new sources of revenue. Fortunately, there are options, with online auctions providing a key opportunity for nonprofits to replace or supplement lost revenues from the closure of Amazon’s charity program. Maximizing your nonprofit fundraising strategy using online auctions ensures your organization will not be affected by the closure of AmazonSmile and your loss of funding.

Charity Auctions Today is a preferred online auction platform, serving nonprofit organizations for nearly a decade. Today the platform is fielding calls from nonprofits seeking new turnkey fundraising strategies to replace the loss of AmazonSmile funding.

When AmazonSmile is no longer an option, online auctions can provide nonprofits a fundraising strategy with a powerful new source of revenue. With Charity Auctions Today, you can easily create exciting auction experiences that engage your supporters and bring in funds to support your cause. And we will never give you a month’s notice to find a new funding source—promise. Charity Auctions Today is here for the long haul and will help boost your nonprofit fundraising strategy.

In this blog post, we will discuss three ways online auctions can help nonprofits say goodbye to AmazonSmile and hello to Charity Auctions Today. Learn to switch gears quickly from Amazon to us and achieve your nonprofit fundraising strategy.  Read on to learn more!

1. Generate More Revenue with Online Auctions:

By utilizing Charity Auctions Today’s online auction platform, nonprofits can generate more revenue by increasing the number of bidders participating in their auctions. This increased competition results in higher bids and more significant proceeds for the organization.

Increasing bidder participation is a viable nonprofit fundraising strategy to grow your bottom line.

2. Reach a Larger Audience:

With Charity Auctions Today’s online auction platform, nonprofits can reach a larger audience than they could with AmazonSmile. The platform has easy-to-use features that enable organizations to broadcast their auctions across various channels and quickly find new donors. And new donors are a critical component of any nonprofit fundraising strategy.

3. Enhance Donor Experience:

Since Charity Auctions Today incorporates user-friendly features into its platform, nonprofits can create an engaging and enjoyable experience for their donors. This improved donor experience will help to build relationships with current and future donors, ultimately resulting in increased revenues for the organization.

By leveraging Charity Auctions Today’s online auction platform, nonprofits have an opportunity to replace or supplement lost revenues from the closure of Amazon’s charity program and recreate a rich nonprofit fundraising strategy.

With online auctions, organizations can generate more revenue, reach a larger audience, and enhance the donor experience.  And, as quickly as Amazon closed its funding program, you can create an online auction to accelerate a new funding source that won’t let you down. Take advantage of this excellent resource today and welcome your new nonprofit fundraising strategy to kick off 2023 with a surge!

Partner with Charity Auctions Today

Nonprofits that depended on Amazon’s charity program for funding in the last ten years need new and viable options to recoup revenue losses from its closure. We’d like to be your option.

Let us familiarize you with all we offer, especially the different fundraising ideas that will help prevent funding loss from Amazon’s charity program closure. We’ll help you establish a new nonprofit fundraising strategy immediately. Call us 844-234-2335, Mon-Fri, 8am – 9pm CST or email us at support@chartityauctionstoday.com.

Creating a wishlist

The online auction platform can be transformed into a product wishlist and donation center with a little creative visualization. It doesn’t cost extra or require any special skills to create it. It’s simply a creative way to use our auction platform. It is ideal for nonprofits that require goods to maintain their cause. An example might be a crisis center that needs diapers, formula, and clothing for infants and toddlers.illustration of blue clipboard with stars indicating a wishlist

While we are an online auction platform, it can be used in creative ways. For example, we once worked with a nonprofit that had a lovely dog program. We used the platform as a storefront where the nonprofit posted products they needed for the dogs—like a wishlist. There was no bidding, just purchasing the products sent to the nonprofit. The only funds that were collected were donations.

The nonprofit saved significant dollars by having donors purchase items they needed via their online auction platform’s hybrid wishlist and donation kiosk. Let us give you a hand in creating a nonprofit fundraising strategy.

More helpful ideas to create your nonprofit’s fundraising strategy:

• Fundraising ideas for nonprofits
• Case study of NFL player Roy Hall helping his community 
• Guide for running a silent auction
• How to organize a charity walk or run
• Fundraising ideas that rock
• How to promote your online auction on social media

We don’t want to inundate you with too many ideas, as it’s easy to get overwhelmed. The best idea is to take a look at our offerings and then give us a call to discuss options. We can provide a history of what has been successful for nonprofits similar to yours, as well as make recommendations to keep your funding pipeline flowing.

Create your new nonprofit fundraising strategy with our help.

Go ahead. Say goodbye to AmazonSmile and hello to Charity Auctions Today's nonprofit fundraising strategy

Call (844) 234-2335 | Mon thru Fri | 8am – 9pm CST
CALL NOW

 

 

ICYMI: Key points in AmazonSmile’s closure

In 2013, AmazonSmile was launched to make it easier for customers to support their favorite charities. Nearly a decade later, Amazon revealed that the program “has not grown to create the impact they had originally hoped.” With one million eligible organizations globally—Amazon thought its ability to have an impact was often spread too thin. By contributing 0.5% of every purchase made by participating customers to the charity of their choosing, as of 2022, the company claims it has donated $449 million to various charities. After closing AmazonSmile, Amazon will focus its philanthropic giving on programs with greater impact. They are leaning toward areas where meaningful change can be made—from affordable housing to providing students in underserved communities access to computer science education. To ease the pain, Amazon claims it will provide a final donation to each of the one million-plus nonprofits that used AmazonSmile, equivalent to 25%, or three months of what the charity received from the program in 2022.

ICYMI

In case you didn’t receive the break-up email on January 18, 2023—AmazonSmile recipients received this email from Amazon:

Dear customer,

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.

CLOSING THOUGHTS from Charity Auctions Today

Goodbye AmazonSmile, hello, Charity Auctions Today. We can help you create a robust new
nonprofit fundraising strategy.

Amazon had a good run and donated a significant amount of money to help nonprofits. Some say the
timing of the closure in relation to the massive layoffs announcement is suspect. Are they bearing down to
fight off rising inflation and a potential recession? Or are they truly refocusing their footprint in terms of
where their dollars go and what they achieve? Whatever the reason, we can all be appreciative of the
funding Amazon graciously doled out over the past ten years. Amazon has been a good steward and
friend of nonprofits everywhere.


Please call to say hello to Charity Auctions Today to unlock a new nonprofit fundraising strategy while
expanding your nonprofit’s reach.