Corporate Charity

A lot of companies give to charity, and it’s a great thing. Some match what their employees donate, and others just donate some of their profits to charities.

But a trend that drives me insane is when companies ask if you want to donate money to them to donate to charity. The “Product Red” campaign is a great example. It seems that you can pay, say, $50 extra on a product, and have $25 donated to charity. Plus, I’m sure the company receives a tax advantage when donating your money.

It’s sort of like the telemarketers for charities, which are usually run by companies that skim at least 50%, if not more, of your donation. In a way, they’re doing a great thing, but bringing in record donations to charity, simply by getting people who wouldn’t seek out a charity to donate. But at the same time, I can’t help but think that companies letting customers donate, indirectly, to charity are doing something insidious. Instead of giving a company money to donate to charity on your behalf, give it directly.

3 thoughts on “Corporate Charity

  1. Being asked at the counter to donate bugs me a little as well. I tend to think they don’t skim much off the top though. The specific product things that say x% will be donated to charity I worry about.

    BTW Microsoft will match time donated to charity by employees at a rate of something like $17/hour which is a pretty good deal I think. Microsoft matches 10s of millions for employee matching every year. The company is one of the leaders in the country in terms of % of employees who donate time, money and goods. And blood. A disproportionate percentage of the blood donated in the Puget Sound area comes from Microsoft employees.

  2. “Being asked at the counter to donate bugs me a little as well. I tend to think they don’t skim much off the top though.”

    I think the more scrupulous businesses don’t take anything, but they do turn around and claim to have donated millions to charity.

    “BTW Microsoft will match time donated to charity by employees at a rate of something like $17/hour which is a pretty good deal I think.”

    That’s actually pretty awesome.

    “And blood. A disproportionate percentage of the blood donated in the Puget Sound area comes from Microsoft employees.”

    That’s actually pretty creepy. πŸ˜‰ But then again, I’m really squeamish about blood.

  3. I don’t mind donating blood at all. In fact I have been known to set up races with others to see who could fill up the bag first. On the other hand a certain social studies teacher at BG was very squeamish about donating blood but still does it regularly. I have to respect her for that. Even if she wouldn’t race with me. πŸ™‚

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