The holiday giving season is upon us and many people are thinking about donating to charity. If your company sponsors a specific charity, the decision to give as an employee can be a tricky one. Is this an organization you might give to anyway? Is participating in the company charity drive one of those intangibles that might be taken into account when you try to move up the corporate ladder? Will donating get you something you want (like the opportunity to wear jeans)?
The bottom line: When it comes to donating to charity, only give if you want to – and don’t let someone else tell you where your charity dollars should go.
Photo Credit: Elliot Brown
I never donate to charity campaigns sponsored by corporations, for 2 reasons.
First, I assume that the sponsoring corporation will use the donation to secure a tax credit for itself, and second, the corporation will use the collected donations to make itself, as opposed to the individual donors, look good in the eyes of the public.
When I wish to donate anonymously, I simply do so as an individual, and should I want a tax receipt, I donate in my own name.
I try to avoid them personally. They’re normally bigger organizations that probably have more waste than the more local ones.
Thanks for letting me write a guest post, Len!
My company has it’s own charitable arm, so that’s who they are trying to get us to donate to. And at some point I might, because it provides good networking opportunities and because I do support the work our foundation does. But for the most part, I don’t let other people tell me where my charitable dollars should go.
I’m not sure why, but I tend to avoid such drives. I do like giving to charity but I guess I don’t like mixing my personal interests and favorite charities with work, and I also don’t usually give to the larger charities with high administrative costs. Work drives tend to be about the larger charities.
People think donating is insurance that you feel like a good person. There are many things that you can do besides giving money that will lead to good results, too. And, if you don’t have it to give then it’s a no-brainer. Give time.
We always gave to United Way when we were working. But here is my beef. The last few years we donated thousands of dollars to different charities. Red Cross for Ukraine, Heart and Lung Foundation, Salvation Army, BC Cancer Research, etc. Don’t forget the SPCA. I renovated a kitchen for a neighbour and didn’t charge them except for materials, made them send a donation to Red Cross in lieu of my fee. Now we are inundated with solicitations. Calendars, letters, pens, even grocery bags with a pleas for help. It never ends. The Cdn Legion even. Because of the junk mail harassment we have totally stopped giving to these charities. That is not what we signed on for. Now we just give to the local volunteer Fire Dept which also runs our local search and rescue. The local food bank is an industry unto itself so we leave that one alone.
It really frosts my beanie when they use donations for additional fund raising and promotion.