It might be sad that Amazon smile is shutting down but frankly nobody really uses it. It relied too much on users to remember to visit amazon smile and purchase via there.
@supremus Them effectively paywalling that flow and then saying it wasn’t used much to shut it down is a special kind of hubris.
@aurora yep! Could have been much better but counter argument is that Amazon has so many charity options inside that this is nowhere near the impact other programs have.
@aurora @supremus oddly the AmazonSmile integration on the mobile app was better. Once linked, all purchases qualified without having to take any extra steps while placing orders.
@supremus Our PTA will miss it - it was always a nice way to get some funding while parents carried out their usual shopping, specially over the holidays!
@supremus
but I am hoping that there was great auditing in place and money went where it should have.
Interestingly, as someone who works with private foundations a lot including Bezos, this aspect was the best thing for grantees especially since she was giving it to smaller minority-led organizations who have less infrastructure devoted to grant reporting. Also, in our case, we find ourselves spending too much time in making progress reports by filling out templates that we are sure disappear into a void.
Even at the federal grants level, I was told by a program officer that 90% of the annual reports' content go unread.
@pratik Interesting. Yeah I am a big fan of her, and its good to know she has a good team to dispurse her money!!