The End of A – Giving – Era
By now, you have probably heard the news that AmazonSmile – Amazon’s in-platform program that allows shoppers to easily set up recurring donation options to their favorite nonprofits – will be ending on Monday, February 20, 2023. While Amazon has its own reasons for this, we know that the sudden cancellation of AmazonSmile will affect millions of nonprofit organizations around the globe who have benefited from the program for the last 10 years. While we can’t bring back the program, we have brainstormed different strategies you can implement to help you make up for the impending losses, as well as provide more context on this recent change from Amazon.
HIGHLIGHTS
- According to Amazon, the ending of the AmazonSmile program comes due to their inability to “create the impact that [they] had originally hoped.”
- AmazonSmile will officially end on Monday, February 20, 2023.
- Amazon has provided different opportunities in an effort to replace the impact from AmazonSmile, as well as mention their larger scale ongoing community support efforts.
- We brainstormed for you and came up with 5 strategies to start making up for any revenue lost from the termination of AmazonSmile.
- We are here to help you implement these new strategies by tailoring them to your nonprofit’s needs.
Amazon’s Announcement & Solutions
As stated above, the AmazonSmile program will be ending after launching 10 years ago in 2013. According to the January 18th announcement posted by Amazon, the end of the program comes after the company felt that the program had “not grown to create the impact that [they] had originally hoped,” adding that they felt their “ability to have an impact was often spread too thin.” While Amazon feels as though they weren’t making donation waves the way they had hoped, we, like so many other organizations, are disappointed to see it go!
Amazon has provided different donation opportunities for nonprofit organizations in an effort to replace the impact from AmazonSmile, as well as mentioned their larger scale, ongoing community support efforts. These efforts range from a one-time donation equivalent to three months of what (individual nonprofits) earned in 2022 through the program, to the continuing strategy that involves creating wish lists on the main Amazon shopping platform. While the overall impact from Amazon to nonprofit organizations is indeed a huge help, you may be left wondering how your organization in particular will be able to recoup any losses from the termination of AmazonSmile. Lucky for you, we did some brainstorming for you and have shared it below!
How To Make Up Lost Revenue From AmazonSmile Cancellation
1. Host your donations in-house
If you haven’t already done so, we strongly recommend finding a donation platform that allows you to manage your online donations straight from your website! For WordPress website users, we strongly suggest using a platform like GiveWP, which allows you to create an online donation form and embed it right onto your donation landing page. You can choose your form layout, customize your donation options, offer recovery fee opt-in options, and automate annual giving receipts and donation emails, all within one platform!
2. Optimize your donation landing page
According to Nonprofit Hub, 82% of donors will visit a nonprofits’ website before giving. Because of this, it is vital to create a dedicated landing page for donations, with a brief description of your mission and a call-to-action about why people should donate. Besides having a dedicated space for users to donate, you will also be able to share it with ease for a variety of mediums (email, social media, Google ad grant, etc.) There are a few do’s and don’ts that come with a well optimized donation landing page strategy, which we will be going over in a FREE live webinar in June! Click here to reserve your spot.
3. Provide online, peer-to-peer fundraising opportunities
Make donating a fun competition for families, friends, and larger businesses / corporations with peer-to-peer fundraising! Having an online option for peer-to-peer fundraising makes it easier for large groups of people to donate to your cause; plus, GiveWP has a great add-on right within their plugin! For more information on how to get started with peer-to-peer fundraising, email us at [email protected], or speak with your dedicated account manager.
4. Set up text-to-give donating for upcoming events
Have an in-person event coming up? A simple solution to remind people in the moment of your cause and the need for donations is with a text-to-give donating function! This quick, real-time donating opportunity will remind people to donate at the most important time; when they are participating in one of your events! (P.S. – PGM can also help you with this functionality, and has past experience creating this feature for organizations!)
5. Create a “Giving” social media campaign
Regularly redirecting your audience to your donation landing page is a key strategy in upping your donation rates, and social media is a great place to start. Including personalized stories about the impact of your services will speak to people the best, and will give them a detailed idea about how their donation to your cause can realistically help their community. Interested in learning more about donation strategies for social? Save your spot now for our February and September webinars to learn more about “Cause-Driven Copywriting” and “Our Top 5 Giving Tuesday Social Media Tips”. More information on these webinars can be found here.
Moving Forward
We are confident that these strategies will greatly help your organization makeup for any losses you may experience. And while we agree that these can easily be completed in-house, we are here to help you implement the best strategies tailored to your nonprofit’s needs, by bringing our 10+ years of experience to you! For more information on how PGM can help you, contact us at [email protected], or reach out to your dedicated account manager.
If you are a nonprofit organization who is interested in the many ways PGM can help you fulfill YOUR mission, please contact us at 630.686.2600 or email [email protected]. We are excited for the possibility of joining your team!
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