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Thread: Cheap bastards...

  1. #1
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    Cheap bastards...

    From Amazon just now:
    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.
    ...Ben
    The future is forged on the anvil of history...The interpreter of history wields the hammer... - Unknown author...

  2. #2
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    A handful of charities I support have done well with AmazonSmile. I hope they continue to do well.

    Hunter
    I don't care if it hurts. I want to have control. I want a perfect body. I want a perfect soul. - Creep by Radiohead

  3. #3
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    Bezos has to pay for his little rocket ships somehow
    "The only thing that we learn from torture is the depths of our own moral depravity"

  4. #4
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    Cheap Bastards is right!
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
    "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
    “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis

  5. #5
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    I got the notice and I don't like it either. Then I thought about it some more and read a couple of articles and changed my mind.

    I was very surprised when they started the program. After all, why should they give a percentage of every customer's purchases to the charity of the customer's choice? Why wouldn't they give to the charity of their choice instead, which is what they have decided to do.

    In an article by USA TODAY Amazon is quoted as saying that there are over 1 million eligible charities worldwide with an average donation of less than $230, lessening the impact of the donations. They want to cutback on the numbers of charities so that the donations will have a greater impact on the charities they focus on. This makes a lot of sense to me, why donate a lot of money to a huge number of charities only to have it diluted so badly it basically has no effect?

    We all know Amazon didn't start the Smile program out of generosity, it was a PR ploy to make people feel good about their charitable donations by buying from Amazon so that they would buy more. As it turns out, Amazon opened the coffers to far too many charities, and donations to each shrank making many of them meaningless.

    This is bad PR, but likely a good move by Amazon if they continue giving to charity without cutting the amount donated.
    The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible - Arthur C. Clarke

  6. #6
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    I would have far less negative feelings about this if they had simply reduced the number of eligible charities. Simply managing the data is a huge undertaking.
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
    "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
    “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis

  7. #7
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    Would you still feel that way if they cut out your charity while keeping mine? I think it would cause greater PR harm doing it that way.
    The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible - Arthur C. Clarke

  8. #8
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    I would not be happy but I would go in search of another.
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
    "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
    “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dave Grubb View Post
    I would not be happy but I would go in search of another.
    You're a better man than me, I suspect I would be pissed.
    The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible - Arthur C. Clarke

  10. #10
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    It's nice to see more info presented about the changes made by Amazon.

    Hunter
    I don't care if it hurts. I want to have control. I want a perfect body. I want a perfect soul. - Creep by Radiohead

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