Master blogger and all around good dude, Matt (Living for the City), recently blogged about the irony of Dominion's current charity campaign for Trees Ontario. You make a two dollar donation to save trees and in return you're asked to put your name on a beautiful paper cut-out of a tree to be hung on the wall to exhibit what a great caring environmentalist you are. The irony, of course, as Matt points out, is that you're supposed to be saving trees not wasting them on silly self-glorifying trophies of good citizenship.
The problem I've always had with these grocery store/walmart charity campaigns, however, isn't as practical. Rather, it's the idea of a charitable donation made through a giant multinational corporation. You know somewhere along the lines a finance officer and marketing director met in a boardroom (i.e. putting green) and said 'let's raise hundreds of thousands- maybe millions- of dollars from our customers and then make a huge charitable donation in our company's name and get a sweet tax break because of it.' I'm not sure if this is actually what happens, but it seems logical enough, and if it is the case I'd rather keep my two bucks.
Of course, I recognize that regardless of any benefits being reaped by the proxy donor, a large sum of money is being donated to a worthwhile cause. This may be true, but I question how much of each two dollar donation actually makes its way into the account of the recipient after the green fees for the duck heads in marketing and PR are paid for, the promotional devices are printed, and the executive's eco-adventure to Costa Rica is covered.
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