TL;DR: AmazonSmile shut down in February 2023 and its residual programs wound down through 2024. Shop-for-good replacements exist, but the real takeaway is bigger: passive giving doesn't fund growing nonprofits. Building an active recurring-giving program does. Here's the shift, the math, and the playbook.
When Amazon ended AmazonSmile, a lot of nonprofit teams went hunting for a one-to-one replacement. That's the wrong question. AmazonSmile, at its peak, distributed about $449 million across more than a million nonprofits over a decade — roughly $400 per organization, per decade. It was never a fundraising program. It was a brand-affinity tool that occasionally produced a check.
The real lesson from AmazonSmile's shutdown isn't which passive program comes next. It's that passive giving — round-ups, gift cards, shop-for-good — has never been a foundation for a growing nonprofit's revenue. The organizations that grew through 2023, 2024, and into 2026 did it on the back of recurring monthly donors, mid-level major gifts, and stewardship discipline. Not Amazon.
This article walks through the shop-for-good alternatives that still exist (in case you want to keep one as a small supplemental channel) and then shows the active recurring-giving playbook that should sit at the center of your strategy.
The state of shop-for-good in 2026
Most of the AmazonSmile alternatives that emerged in 2023 are still operating, though several have changed shape. Here's the realistic landscape:
ShopRaise
ShopRaise remains the closest functional replacement for AmazonSmile. Donors install a browser extension or app, and a percentage of their everyday purchases at over 1,000 retailers — Walmart, Macy's, Expedia, and more — gets passed to your nonprofit. Earnings can run up to 10%, well above AmazonSmile's 0.5%. The catch is the same one that limited AmazonSmile: donors have to remember to use it. Adoption is the friction.
RaiseRight
RaiseRight uses scrip gift cards. Supporters buy gift cards through RaiseRight (for Amazon, Target, Walmart, and hundreds of other retailers), and a percentage — averaging 6%, with some retailers as high as 20% — comes back to your nonprofit. Earnings are higher per transaction than ShopRaise, but the workflow has more steps. It works best for tight communities where supporters will commit to a routine, like school booster clubs or congregations.
Walmart Spark Good
Walmart Spark Good includes a registry tool (donors can buy items off your wishlist) and a round-up program at checkout. The round-up is donor-funded rather than corporate-offset, which means your supporters cover the cost. It's useful for in-kind needs — a food pantry's canned goods, a shelter's supplies — more than for unrestricted cash.
Target Circle Community Giving
Target's program shifted in late 2024 toward localized community grant cycles. Customers vote with Circle points to direct grant dollars to nonprofits in their area. The funds are corporate grants, not consumer-paid, but the program is regional and time-bound. If your nonprofit operates in a Target market and gets selected, it's free exposure plus a check. If not, there's nothing to do.
What about Samarity?
Samarity, the survey-based giving platform we recommended in 2023, has scaled back its US nonprofit operations. Most growing nonprofits in 2026 won't find it a reliable channel. We mention it here so you know to skip it.
Use one of these as a low-effort supplemental channel if it makes sense. But don't expect any of them to fund your mission. Now let's talk about what does.
The real shift: from passive shopping to active recurring giving
Here's the math that should reshape your strategy. According to the M+R Benchmarks Study, recurring donors give roughly 5x more annually than one-time donors and have 5-year retention rates of 60-70% — compared to about 20% for first-time one-time donors. A monthly donor at $25 is worth roughly $1,500 over five years. A shop-for-good supporter is worth, on average, about $4 per year.
Recurring giving isn't a new idea. What's new is that the tools to run it well — donor portals, automated retry logic for failed cards, year-end tax summaries, milestone stewardship — are finally accessible to growing nonprofits without enterprise pricing. If you spent the last three years chasing AmazonSmile alternatives, this is where to redirect that energy.
The active recurring-giving playbook
This is the Smart Stewardship approach to building a recurring program — not a tactical checklist, but a sequence growing nonprofits actually run.
1. Set the right monthly ask amount
Most nonprofits ask for too little. The sweet spot for a growing nonprofit's recurring program is $25 to $50 per month, not $5 or $10. Donors who say yes to $25/month are signaling commitment, not testing the waters. Pre-fill your donation form with three monthly options — $25, $50, $100 — and a fourth custom field. Make monthly the default, not a checkbox to opt into.
2. Make the donation form actually work
A modern online giving page should default to monthly, accept Apple Pay and Google Pay, take under 90 seconds to complete on mobile, and use a 1% platform fee structure rather than 3% tip-based pricing that erodes donor goodwill. If your current form doesn't do these things, that's where the work starts.
3. Build the automated welcome series
The first 30 days after a donor joins your monthly program decide whether they'll still be giving in year three. Trigger an immediate thank-you email, a 7-day mission-impact story, a 14-day note from your ED, and a 30-day milestone email. Pull this from your CRM, not your inbox. The Action Board in DonorDock surfaces new recurring donors automatically and flags follow-up tasks so they never sit ignored.
4. Steward like the gifts are major gifts
A $50/month donor giving for five years is a $3,000 supporter. Treat them that way. Send handwritten notes at the one-year and three-year anniversaries. Invite them to a virtual mission update twice a year. Call them when their card declines instead of letting an automated email do the asking. Recurring donors who feel seen renew at dramatically higher rates.
5. Recover failed payments deliberately
About 5-10% of recurring credit card transactions fail each month — usually because cards expired or were replaced. Without intervention, those donors silently churn. Smart Nudges and automated retry logic in your donor management software handle the technical recovery. A personal email or phone call from your team handles the relationship.
6. Measure what matters
Track three numbers monthly: new recurring donors added, recurring donor churn rate, and average monthly recurring revenue. If churn exceeds 5% per month, your stewardship has a hole. If new acquisition exceeds churn by 10% or more, you're compounding. That compounding is what AmazonSmile never delivered.
Moving forward without AmazonSmile — and beyond it
AmazonSmile's shutdown was a gift in disguise. It pushed nonprofit teams to stop relying on passive trickle programs and rebuild around the donors who actually care enough to give monthly. The growing nonprofits we work with at DonorDock are running recurring-giving programs that bring in 30-50% of total revenue — predictably, every month, without a corporate partner deciding the program ends next quarter.
Use ShopRaise or RaiseRight if it fits your community. But put your real time, your CRM workflows, and your stewardship attention into recurring giving. That's the shift that compounds.
To see how growing nonprofits use DonorDock to run recurring-giving programs without manual data entry — automated thank-you sequences, failed-payment recovery, and a 1% platform fee on online donations — watch our demo video or schedule a call with our team.
