ladyislingering |
03-07-2014 12:24 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Engine
(Post 1424159)
I don't mean to be hyper cynical but you just described another type of corporate posturing; and they get the benefit of attracting employees like yourself who want the comfort of feeling like you're helping heal the world. They want you to feel that way. Its definitely good that your company gives to the needy but it's still all about the bottom line. As for the employee benefits, how does getting a super discount on donated/sample products reflect on the company? Like you said, they already had the stuff for (almost) free.
Anyway, I don't mean to argue, you seem to recognize what I'm saying. I'm just long past the point of believing that real altruism exists in any corporation at its core. It's all just marketing strategy.
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I'm totally aware. In a perfect world, the company would give massive shares to our nonprofits but we also have a business to run. We're expected to do everything we do both in the interest of the company and our non-profits (though sometimes it's tricky to just go up to someone and be like "I see you've found some awesome things today - they were brought to us by our non-profits. Do you know what they do?"). We have a new business plan for the year and they're expecting a considerable growth over last year (we've got stores in the US, Canada, and Australia) so it's super important that we tell people what happens when they donate, what we do for our non-profits, etc.
There is a certain level of altruism but it's also a genius business model. It really is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dreadnaught
(Post 1424163)
That does sound pretty awesome. I work in an industry and for a specific company that, in my opinion, should ethically operate on a nonprofit model and give back or contribute something to the population we serve, given the kind of work we do for our customers (senior care), but this doesn't seem the case. It is thankless work for employees, and it sucks to see the company we give so much to does nothing to better the lives of others.
It's really interesting to see the way charitable giving is broken down in the U.S. I'm currently pursuing a B.A. in Philanthropic Studies and one of the first things you learn is how skewed monetary donations are, and where the money actually goes. Corporate giving is a surprisingly small piece of the pie, but on the same token, corporations are able to give much more in a single donation and can generally be relied on to contribute annually, and like you said, it works in their favor as far as their imagine is concerned. Individual giving still remains the biggest single contributor to the nonprofit sector.
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Senior care is really expensive and seedy in the states. They're not always taken care of adequately and their families (or their social security/disability/other income) pay massive amounts just to keep their loved ones from wandering away or hurting themselves in the home.
Some years ago I was working for one of America's biggest retailers and we were pushing for monetary donations to benefit the Children's Miracle Network. I didn't realize it at the time but the most heinous part of it was that they turned it into a contest to see who could sell the most $1 donations. I actually won. I was gifted a $50 gift card. But it made me wonder where that came from, and where the money is actually going, and how much money is being swallowed up by the corporation to cover the cost of distributing all those little paper balloons (bar code for $1 donation on the back) and whatever else was involved with the preparations for the drive.
You really don't know where it goes, and it's weird.
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