Reply #16: When a shareholder in a for-profit corporation receives a dividend check...

[Boojatta]

and then donates some or all of that money to an organization such as The Innocence Project, how would you summarize the events?

The shareholder received profit, unless perhaps the shareholder's total returns (including dividend money donated to charity) will fail, after liquidation of the long position, to provide more than what the shareholder spent to buy shares. Now, presuming that the shareholder doesn't expect to personally obtain any concrete benefit from the donation (such as publicity), we could say that the spending of the money was an end in itself. The opportunity to make such a donation would seem to be a drive motivating the shareholder.

Profit is likely to be a key element in that drive if, as assumed, the donation money comes from dividends. Now, there are obviously alternative sources of money for charity. However, I didn't propose the above scenario for no reason. If, for example, you regularly spend part of your paychecks or pension checks to donate to charity, then the donations will stop when you die. If you donate dividends to charity, then it's very easy to arrange for the donations to continue after you die.