The Smile That Made Us Frown

by Village Books

An exerpt from "Is It Immoral for Charities to Push ‘AmazonSmile’?"

–philanthropy.com, 2014

"Because buying through Amazon is not inevitable—it’s a choice. And if you give your supporters a moral excuse for supporting an immoral corporation, are you serving your mission or simply chasing a few bucks?

And the bucks, by the way, are very few. Say you are fairly successful in getting your supporters to put your organization down as the beneficiary of Amazon Smile. Let’s say that over the holidays they purchase $25,000 worth of goods from Amazon—purchases that otherwise would have been made at local stores that your neighbors own and where taxpaying members of your community work. That $25,000 would have been a lot of income for those local stores, perhaps the difference between survival and closure, or keeping staff members or firing them. But you’ve thrown your lot in with Amazon. And in return you will get a kickback of ... $125. Yes, that’s all that one-half of 1 percent of $25,000 amounts to. Is it worth it?"

Amazon announced in January that they would be ending their AmazonSmile program on February 20th this year. Though we’re not ones to celebrate the failures of another, when Amazon announced this, we could not keep the grin from our faces. On the surface, this may appear to be bad for non-profits in our communities who have long linked to this program. However, the effect may not be what you may expect. In 2017, the website nonprofitchronicles.com published the article titled, "Why Amazon Smile Doesn’t Make Me Smile." There, they argue that the program has neither increased the quantity or quality of charitable giving. And in an NPR article published in January, 2023, they cited the average donation per charity in 2022 was $230. In the past we’ve been hesitant to point this out as it could be construed as pointing a finger of accusation or judgement. Now, as the Smile program is ending, we see this as an opportunity to renew and celebrate our community partnerships without the specter of AmazonSmile lurking about, undermining our efforts.

Building community is both the foundation and keystone of Village Books and Paper Dreams’ mission. One of the many ways we accomplish this is through our hundreds of creative partnerships. These can include sponsorships, shared events, and charitable giving. We believe that relationships are more important than transactions.