Will Amazon’s decision give affiliate a reason to smile?

Written by Brook Schaaf

Last week, Amazon announced the end of its ten-year-old AmazonSmile charity program.

To me, this is puzzling. Whether through SEO domination, advertising, its mobile app, affiliates, or, now, with a nod to seller networks, Amazon has always had a knack for profitably diverting traffic flows to itself.

One contributor on Forbes argued that it was past time to end a program that gave relatively too little to charity — $400 million to charities in the U.S. and over $449 million globally since 2013. Amazon is known to be a numbers-driven company, so perhaps — and this is just a guess — they calculated that the program was not incremental or even cannibalistic?

Whatever the reason, this may be the gain of an affiliate niche. Mark Marovich of FlipGive flippantly (haha) noted in an online forum (shared with permission) that this would be a good reason to use other fundraising vehicles, such as iGive, ShopRaise, and, of course, his own. And I think he’s spot on. My own little church, for example, will find another platform.

Along with it, many thousands of charities large and small, likely giving many in the affiliate space cause to smile.