SEATTLE _ Amazon.com said its philanthropic program that routes a fraction of the cash from customer purchases to charities has crossed more than $100 million in donations.
The Seattle company's AmazonSmile initiative, which lets shoppers earmark 0.5 percent of the purchase price of select items for donation to a wide range of nonprofits, was founded in 2013.
When it began, the program was a rare philanthropic effort at a company that had historically devoted little time or energy to such causes. That has started to change as employees pushed the company to do more, and Amazon in recent years has formalized scattered philanthropic programming already in place and added new initiatives.
To mark the $100 million milestone, Amazon said that through Friday, AmazonSmile will donate 5 percent of the purchase price of eligible products.
