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Amazon’s charity-donation program, AmazonSmile, ended Feb. 20, cutting off a relatively easy way for people to do a little good while shopping.
The program let Amazon customers send a donation worth 0.5% of eligible purchases directly to a favorite nonprofit. Amazon covered the donation; there was no extra cost to customers. While AmazonSmile had raised $400 million in the U.S. since its 2013 launch, the company said it axed the program because it wasn’t having enough impact.
While AmazonSmile may have been among the most well-known, Amazon’s charity-donation program isn’t the only way shoppers at major retailers can support a favorite cause. Here’s a look at some other options for do-gooder consumers.
Walmart
Shoppers on Walmart.com
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can round up their purchase to the nearest dollar and donate those pennies to a nonprofit of their choice through Walmart’s Round Up program. It’s not available at cash registers in brick-and-mortar Walmart stores, but Walmart+ members can use Round Up in stores if they use the Walmart app’s Scan & Go tool to pay for their purchases.
Walmart.com shoppers won’t automatically see the Round Up option at checkout. To activate it, you’ll first need to set up an account on Walmart.com, then go to the Account page and click on Giving & Impact under Manage Account. There, you can select one charity to get your spare change. To participate in the Round Up program, which started last September, nonprofits must be verified by a third-party service called FrontDoor.
In addition to Round Up, Walmart customers can buy products that a charity has requested and have the items delivered to the group. Customers can search for charity registries by location or cause. Customers must cover the shipping costs unless the product total hits Walmart’s $35 free-shipping threshold. Both the Round Up cash donations and the registry product donations are tax-deductible, according to Walmart.
Chewy
Animal shelters were a popular cause with AmazonSmile users. One way to keep supporting these groups — other than donating cash to them directly, of course — is to visit Chewy Gives Back on the online pet-supplies retailer Chewy.com
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Customers can search for an animal shelter or rescue in their area and find a “wish list” of supplies that it needs, then buy the items and have them delivered by Chewy. Customers pay full price for the items and will have to pay for shipping unless they hit Chewy’s $35 free-shipping threshold. Chewy Gives Back has donated $100 million in food and supplies since 2012, a Chewy spokeswoman said.
Walgreens
Shoppers at the national pharmacy chain Walgreens
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who are members of its free myWalgreens loyalty program can donate their Walgreens Cash to charity. Members earn 1% cash back on all purchases and 5% on Walgreens-branded products.
But there’s a catch: Customers don’t get to pick which charities receive the funding; Walgreens does. “Walgreens selects charities that closely align with our commitment to improve the health and wellbeing of communities who need it most,” the company says on its website. “Available local charities change every few months. That means there’s always new ways to do good by giving back through Walgreens Cash rewards.” (Walgreens did not respond to a request for comment.) The donations are not tax-deductible, according to the myWalgreens terms and conditions.
Target
Target
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doesn’t provide a way for customers to donate to charities directly. But shoppers who are members of the Target Circle loyalty program can indirectly help support nonprofits: They get to vote on which nonprofits receive cash donations from Target. Members earn votes every time they make a purchase at Target. But users can only choose from a set list of nonprofits. In Target Circle’s first year of operation, members helped direct $7 million in donations to 2,500 local and national nonprofits, according to the retailer’s website. (Target did not respond to a request for comment.)
Ways to donate while shopping at other retailers
In addition to charitable-giving programs at individual retailers, there are web portals and other online tools that let shoppers donate any time they shop online. As always, before you sign up for any online service, read the terms and conditions and privacy policy to make sure you know what you’re getting into.
One is Goodshop, which is “like AmazonSmile, but for nearly 4,000 stores,” said co-founder J.J. Ramberg. Shoppers register on the Goodshop site and pick a charity to support, then do their online shopping through Goodshop, which links to many major retailers including Kohl’s
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Best Buy
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Macy’s
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and others. A percentage of the purchase price is donated to the shopper’s chosen charity at no cost to the customer. Goodshop pays for the donation, and each store decides what percentage of the purchase price is donated; for example, purchases at Old Navy
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generate a 2% donation, while purchases at Best Buy generate a 0.25% donation.
The site launched in 2007 and has donated $13 million since then, Ramberg said. Goodshop has links to coupons and discounts at many of the stores, so shoppers can save money in the process, she added.
Another similar service is Givebacks, which automatically donates up to 1% of your purchase to your chosen causes. Givebacks also gives registered shoppers cash back on their purchases, which they then donate to nonprofits of their choice. Users link a credit card to their account, or add the Givebacks browser extension, “then just shop and dine like you normally do at over 25,000 merchants,” said Bobby Costa, the chief operating officer of MemberHub, the parent company of Givebacks.
The company works with 15,000 online merchants and 10,000 store and restaurant merchants, he said. MemberHub, a fundraising-software company, launched Givebacks in 2020. “It became clear to us that there was a gap in giving,” Costa said. “Nonprofits and charities needed a new donation stream to help them easily earn more for their causes. And millions of potential givers needed an equally easy way to give, without added stress on their to-do lists or wallets.”
There’s also a tool called iGive, which was launched in 1997 and bills itself as “the original online charity mall model,” according to a company statement. Users create an account on iGive, then do their shopping through the site or download a browser extension or phone app. iGive says it has raised more than $10 million for 100,000 causes since it started.
“Shoppers who use iGive will have a greater impact than those who used AmazonSmile,” the company said in a statement. “iGive donations range from .6 to 26 percent of the total purchase price, depending on the retailer. That’s compared to AmazonSmile’s flat donation rate of only .5 percent. With iGive, a $50 online purchase can generate $1.25 more in charity donation compared to using AmazonSmile. Over time, this adds up faster, creating a greater impact for small nonprofits.”
