What do you think of when you buy stuff, companies will give to charity

fuzzybuddy

fuzzybuddy

SF VIP
Location
The Sticks, Northeast PA.
There are a lot of corporations, which will give to charity if you buy their products. How do you feel about that? Unfortunately I'm on the cynical side. You are over paying for a product. Then the corporations give something to someone, and they get to deduct the donations off their income taxes. And to be even more cynical, some ads say they will give a "pet" a meal. Well, what fills a cat is a mouthful for a dog, and how much does a 'pet' gerbil eat? And it's kind of fuzzy who is getting the free meals? Are vets getting free food for animals in their care, if they post a company's pet food ad? Like I said I'm a cynic.
 

One of the pet food companies say they will donate a pet a meal if you buy a sack of their dog food. Why don't they donate a sack for every sack you buy?
 
I feel the same way, it's all romance.

I shop for value and make my own decisions about which causes I choose to support.
 

I totally agree with all of you. Even picking your causes you wish to support can be tricky. I read of an animal rescue nearby that sold the canned pet food that was brought in as a donation. Seems like unless you open the can and plop it in the bowl yourself you never really know if the animals are getting the food. Since that time I make sure the outside of the sacks of dry food are slightly damaged enough so it can't be resold.
 
I like to give to my own charities too, many are not on the up and up from what I hear. I was hit up recently at the Petsmart cashier to donate $5 for a toy for a child and a meal for a homeless pet, I agree this time, but don't always.
 
Let's see. These warm, wonderful, for profit corporations are quite willing to allow horrible, terrible, harmful, or painful things to happen to poor helpless people or animals, unless I buy their products. And exactly what these warm hearted corporations do with these "donations" is rather iffy.
 
Aunt Bea said:
I feel the same way, it's all romance.

I shop for value and make my own decisions about which causes I choose to support.
Click to expand...

I take a jaundiced eye to most commercial giving.

Also non specific destinations. What exactly does "PROCEEDS GO TO BREAST CANCER" mean? There are hundreds probably thousands of groups doing business as a breast cancer charity. Most of them do almost nothing.

All causes have been co-opted, But Vets Breast Cancer, and Animals have taken the worst hits.
 
We have a local food bank, Manna, which is a very worthy organization. But one thing that sometimes bothers me is the frequent food drives organized and located in the local supermarkets. There are shopping carts with big Manna signs, and you are encouraged to buy some extra food for the needy, and deposit the cans, boxes, etc. in the carts on your way out. So the store is, of course, profiting from extra sales, and it costs them absolutely nothing. The expense is borne by the customers.

I do donate to Manna, but I just give straight donations of cash. That way, they can buy large quantities of food at wholesale prices, without making the local supermarkets even richer.
 
My learned response to requests for donations in and around the stores is "not this time". That implies I did last time or will do next time. It's a comfortable way to refuse.
I always put at least a quarter in any Salvation Army bucket this time of year. I might needs saving one day.
 
[h=2]What do you think of when you buy stuff, companies will give to charity[/h]
There are a lot of corporations, which will give to charity if you buy their products. How do you feel about that? Unfortunately I'm on the cynical side. You are over paying for a product. Then the corporations give something to someone, and they get to deduct the donations off their income taxes. And to be even more cynical, some ads say they will give a "pet" a meal. Well, what fills a cat is a mouthful for a dog, and how much does a 'pet' gerbil eat? And it's kind of fuzzy who is getting the free meals? Are vets getting free food for animals in their care, if they post a company's pet food ad? Like I said I'm a cynic.

===================================================

We like to pick were my charity money goes. I give a lot even though we do not itemize on my income taxes.​
 
I don't think about it at all. I don't trust it. I just do my regular shopping. If some charity benefits from one or more of my purchases, it isn't because I made a conscious decision to buy specific items.
 
I think that some of these are legitimate, and I like it when the company offered to let me choose a charity for them to donate to.
I shop at Amazon all of the time, and would do so whether or not they donated to charity when I shop there. In fact, that is what I did for a long time, until they developed “Amazon Smiles”. Now, I use that for everything we buy through Amazon, and it goes to a charity that i choose, not one that Amazon chooses. Mine goes to a local charity, and one that I know can use the extra donations.
Kroger is the same way, and like Amazon, I am going to buy my groceries there anyway. I think that there are other stores that have this program, and I can’t see where it can be a bad thing for anyone.
Amazon might get a tax break for the donations, but the charities certainly appreciate the extra help, and since I am going to buy the product anyway (and it does cost the same whether they donate or not), it seems to me like a win-win situation for everyone.
 
Sunny said:
We have a local food bank, Manna, which is a very worthy organization. But one thing that sometimes bothers me is the frequent food drives organized and located in the local supermarkets. There are shopping carts with big Manna signs, and you are encouraged to buy some extra food for the needy, and deposit the cans, boxes, etc. in the carts on your way out. So the store is, of course, profiting from extra sales, and it costs them absolutely nothing. The expense is borne by the customers.

I do donate to Manna, but I just give straight donations of cash. That way, they can buy large quantities of food at wholesale prices, without making the local supermarkets even richer.
Click to expand...

Our largest local food bank had direct food drives at businesses in the past. They've now changed to asking for money donations or pledges because they can buy a lot more food for the same amount of money than we can. I've volunteered there and I've seen the huge truckloads of food they bring in that they've bought with cash donations. I've been donating money because that makes more sense to me.

Also, they know what people need and what works best for their donation systems.

They bring trucks of food to the senior centers and some other locations around town because they said seniors were their largest underserved population.
 
Sadly, I think a lot of these corporations and grocery stores, etc. are in the "charity game" because it benefits them in some way. Frankly I resent going into any store and be asked and expected to give to their charity. The same goes for work. They push and push for me to donate to United Way and another charity the company sponsors. I give to the people I think really need it. The down-and-out man working at the carwash I give a very generous tip to. I choose my own charities. The city I live in has a real problem with panhandlers on all the major intersections. I don't give to them either.
 
The city I live in has a real problem with panhandlers on all the major intersections. I don't give to them either.
Click to expand...

Snuffy, we have a fair amount of panhandlers standing in intersections also. Sometimes I do hand them a buck or two, especially the ones who are obviously handicapped (having one leg, etc.) They always are very grateful and seem so happy to get even that amount. I figure it must be awful to stand there for hours, risking life and limb, and being ignored by one car after another.

Of course, they are also creating a traffic hazard, and I only open the window if I am stopped at a red light anyway.
 
Sunny said:
Snuffy, we have a fair amount of panhandlers standing in intersections also. Sometimes I do hand them a buck or two, especially the ones who are obviously handicapped (having one leg, etc.) They always are very grateful and seem so happy to get even that amount. I figure it must be awful to stand there for hours, risking life and limb, and being ignored by one car after another.

Of course, they are also creating a traffic hazard, and I only open the window if I am stopped at a red light anyway.
Click to expand...

A city out here is going to start ticketing folks who give to the panhandlers. It's a crisis out here in Washington with the homeless and those begging. I don't give since I saw a woman behind me hand a gal begging a sandwich and banana at a corner and the gal threw it on the ground, walked back to her corner and lit her cigarette. Amazing.
 
Probably some of them are mentally ill, Debbie.

Interestingly, your city had one of the first Skid Rows, starting in the mid-19th century. The area was a seedy downtown district, very hilly, where logs were "skidded" down to the water.
 
Sunny and Debbie

My first instinct is to feel sorry for them. But I noticed more and more of them standing at the intersections after our city council revoked a statue that prohibited panhandling on corners. I believe they revoked it because the fire fighters started doing it for charities. Well, young people started getting the idea that the way to make some good money wasn't to work, it was to copy the panhandlers and make some easy money. There were several big articles about it in the paper. Also, how the panhandlers kept passing those homemade cardboard signs around to each other to illicit sympathy from drivers. The mayor finally decided enough was enough and got something passed that discourages begging at MAJOR intersections in town. I still see panhandlers at other intersections, though. You would think, if nothing else, cities would ban it simply because of liability if someone got hurt.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top