I cannot stand when coroporations ask us for charitable donations

[Dawson Leery]

This matter has bothered me for some time.

I cannot stand when you go to the store and they ask you for money for charity, especially these days.
Consider these sob's have nearly 2 TRILLION in cash, they WILL NOT hire, they outsource our jobs, demand more tax breaks, then ask us to donate to charity.
Now, I give to charity. I CHOSE the charities that I give to. I will not, under any circumstance give one sent to charity through
a third party.

[KT2000]

1. And they are "Corporate approved"

charities too. Do you think that a huge grocery store is going to donate to breast cancer or prostate cancer research that looks at environmental causes? No because their merchandise would be scrutinized.
There are others too and I find them to be an affront at the checkstand.

[Dawson Leery]

2. Thank you for your support.

These days, make sure the clerks know about the trillions the corporations are sitting on when they ask me for a "charitable" contribution.
My father has never given one cent through a third party. I have recently joined him.

[fishwax]

16. good point

certainly food for thought.

[RB TexLa]

3. Even if you had $40T in cash with the uncertainly right now, you would have to have actual feces

where your brains are to increase labor costs right now, or any costs for that matter.

[BOHICA12]

5. Ooh, good question. If you could see the mortgage crisis

... would you ad workers to your window factory? Of course not. Well we can see the double dip, I bet employers can see it too.

[BeFree]

12. Gloom and doom eh?

Things are going to get so bad that no company should invest for the future?

[geckosfeet]

4. And I never donate. Except through government mandated tax gievaways.

[BOHICA12]

6. Why not?

How about time and talent?

[geckosfeet]

25. Not to corpo entities. Directly to the charities yes.

[Raine]

7. I consciously avoid making a donation like that

for one thing they get all the credit when it doesn't even come from them but from the customers they put the bite on.

[999998th word]

13. Bingo & they get the tax break too

they can go fLIck themselves.

Extra $$ ,if I ever have any go to local food bank.

[Dawson Leery]

26. +1

[xfundy]

8. Agree. And--

--as greedy as these corporate fucks are, how do we know the money actually goes to the purported charity?

[lunatica]

9. What bothers me is when our congresspeople ask for money to

do their fucking damn jobs. It makes me fly into a rant sometimes. I want to scream at them that they're already being paid and getting the best of health care and benefits to actually do the work. Why do they need me to pay them every time they want to work on some legislation. I think they've found we're the damn goose that laid the golden egg and that all they have to do is pull our chain to get another egg.

Fuck them.

[Daemonaquila]

10. Sing it!

I give hundreds of hours per year to two nonprofits, plus hefty cash and in-kind donations. It is disgusting to me that these corporations want to make themselves look good NOT by donating to charity themselves, but by asking customers to give to their chosen charities. You want them funded? YOU fund them. Don't pressure me at the check-out line to give to a cause I care nothing about.

What makes me sick is that these are always charities for kids, and often useless ones at that (Make a Wish, for example). These are the safest, easiest, best funded charities. When was the last time you saw one of these fat corporations asking for donations to help homeless people? People wrongfully incarcerated? Seniors in need of housing? Wildlife conservation? I'll grant that a few try to get local food shelves funded, or try to collect for local relief efforts (like after Katrina). Those I'll give to, but not through 3rd parties. I'm not here to make them look good.

[nichomachus]

11. What I don't understand

Are the people who volunteer at hospitals. That made sense 40 years ago, when all hospitals were either community owned or run by charitable groups. Today, almost all hospitals are run by blood-sucking corporations whose CEOs make hundreds of millions of dollars a year. And, suckers still go there and donate their time. That's like volunteering to wash cars at the local car dealership.

[XanaDUer]

24. And every year, the CEO of a hosp BRAGS about all the work hours

done for free by hospital volunteers, that they didn't need to hire a person for!

Not that hospital volunteers are not lovely people, who want to help the sick, etc. At some of the slimier hospitals, to save even more money, they'll try to get volunteers to do things that they are supposed to hire someone for - carry specimens around and deliver them to the right place. I worked at a place they had a retired RN in her 70s doing stuff like that that she was not comfortable with. She told me that she did this for years and didn't want to do it now for free - just bring cheer and balloons to folks in their rooms, LOL!

PS- at some hospitals, the volunteer gets one free meal per day the day they volunteer. That could be a reason they do it. At my previous employer, they could get whatever they wanted and would eat at a volunteers' table- a soup, salad, main course, dessert, and a drink. Then the new CEO (making BIG BIG bucks) thought that that was too high, and they got only what they could buy with a $5 chit - maybe one drink and a sandwich. The CEO, natch, got a new top-of-the-line-car and membership to a country club, but that's another story...

:rofl:

[StarburstClock]

14. Me neither. I told an ahole cashier off at a Giant food store

after he asked me 5 times for a donation to some kids fund they had going on. They already price-gouge the hell out of customers, pay their workers squat and I was already in there spending money, albeit a small amount.

REC'D!

[Dawson Leery]

21. Giant is owned by Royal Ahold, who owns Stop & Shop.

Stop & Shop too is overpriced. Also, they love to ask their customers for donations. I have had more than one argument with their managers. I no longer shop there.

[cameozalaznick]

15. I haul out that old saw from the sixties...

I gave at the office.

[jwirr]

17. Wal-Mart must have some type of program like this - in their service

area they have these big signs up showing how much the store has donated to local charities. I always wonder if it is the store or the workers that are doing the donating?

[Fuzz]

18. I worked for a financial institution who would ask us every year to contribute. One year

there was MAJOR pressure on everyone. I was moving up in the company, in the management training program, and the person put in charge of collecting actually said to me that it wouldn't look good for me not to contribute if I was looking to continue to move up the corporate ladder.

I was very young, but was like WTF? That just isn't right at all.

[tammywammy]

19. I work for a large company

Every fall there's a big push to get employees to sign up to donate to charities. It's a month long event. There's a variety of charities you can choose from, local and national, or the Employee Fund which goes to help employees in need, such as those that were effected by the Alabama tornado. Anywho, my weekly donation comes right out of my paycheck. To me it's not about the company getting the PR, it's about focusing on employees making a difference in their communities. They do keep track of the percentage of employees that are signed up, and they know the amount, but as far as I know my superior and such don't know if I do or don't donate. Heck, I was tapped to be on the charity committee and I wasn't donating at the time.

Throughout the year they have other volunteering events, including working at the food shelter making boxes full of food. They also do food drives, local school mentoring, etc. Right now there's a push to gather items to send care packages to troops. The company also done recognition to those employees that volunteer, there was a news notice of those that had received an award based on the number of hours volunteered (100-249, 250-499, 500+ I believe are the tiers).

[Contrary1]

20. "For Every (Insert Name Of Over-priced Product Here) You Buy,

We'll Donate XX Cents to (Insert Name Of Worthy Organization Here)". These type of promotions bother me even more.

They've already got plenty to donate, but that's not good enough. They want to increase their profits, get a nice tax write off, and make themselves look like good guys with our money.

No thanks.

[melm00se]

22. my employer is one of those

that encourages charitable giving but also matches, dollar for dollar, every dollar given and that includes if you take PTO (paid time off) for charitable purposes (IOW if you make $60K a year and take 16 hours off for charitable work, which you log, the company kicks in $461 to the charity you volunteered your time).

[PeaceNikki]

23. I think the premise of this thread is shitty. I support anyone and anything that raises awareness

and helps people in need.

I think it's a GOOD thing that they use their evil for good sometimes. If they agree to donate some of their profits to charity - GOOD! If they use their high visibility and are able to help act as a liaison to collect more for those in need - GOOD! If they encourage and reward their employees to be good stewards in their community - GOOD!

I coordinate blood drives at my place of employment with the full support of my employer, does that bother you, too?

Look, there are a LOT of reasons to hate corporations, but helping those in need is not one of them.

[Dawson Leery]

27. kick

[Hugabear]

28. Don't you love their "conditional" charity giveaways?

Here's one you see all the time: Corporation X announces that if people buy x amount of goods, they'll give a donation to charity.

Basically it's extortion - if you want us to donate, you better buy our shit.

[Dawson Leery]

29. It does seem to be extortion