My favorite one is when our utility company asks me to donate to help pay for people’s utilities like they aren’t raking in record amount of cash.
Why don’t you help by lowering the prices and being more reasonable? How do I even now you’re actually using the money I donate for people’s bills? That’s a crazy donation request.
Come on now, be reasonable. Lowering the prices would mean they can’t buy their 5th mansion. Just stop being selfish and give them a little more money.
Those charities have huge overhead. Very little money goes to the actual cause.
There are sites to check how much actually goes out. Check before you donate.
First, please don’t link to Reddit…
Many Of The Largest Charities In America Are Giant Money Making Scams
http://thetruthwins.com/archives/many-of-the-largest-charities-in-america-are-giant-money-making-scamsRemember kids, they also get to use the money they guilted off of you to reduce their tax liability because they get credit for donating your money!
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I used to work for a retail chain many years ago and I do not think this is true for everywhere.
When we were asking for donations it was tracked and if our location didn’t get enough donations our store manager would get talked to by his district manager. I don’t know exactly what happened to the money once it was donated, but I don’t think they would have been so adamant about getting the donations if they didn’t make anything from it.
This was like 20 years ago though, maybe its different now.
They do not, at least in the US.
It depends on exactly what the store is doing.
If the store is representing the extra charge as a donation to a specific charity, generally, the customer can deduct that.
If it’s far more vague, like, “Give $10 to help poor kids in Africa” the ultimate destination for the funds could be the company’s own ledgers, which it would then use for its own charitable activities and collect the tax deduction, as long as they “help poor kids in Africa.”
And some stores are just lying. CVS, for instance, was sued as part of a class action suit when, after the company pledges $10 million to the American Diabetes Association, then collected money from customers to fund that pledge.
Yep, found the case you referred to…
FACTS
- From November 2, 2021, through November 27, 2021, CVS conducted a campaign (the “Campaign”) in which, prior to the completion of transactions at its nearly ten thousand stores in the 50 States and the District of Columbia, customers were asked on the checkout screen if they wished, as part of the checkout process, to make a donation, above and beyond the price of their purchase, to the American Diabetes Association (“ADA”).
- The only term of the Campaign that CVS provided to customers was a representation on the checkout screen that the customer could make a donation to the ADA (a “Campaign Donation”) by tapping one of several boxes on the checkout screen, each of which contained a preselected amount, or that the customer could tap a box stating “no” with respect to making a Campaign Donation (the “Checkout Message”).
- The Checkout Message represented that CVS was merely collecting Campaign Donations and forwarding them to the ADA.
- The Checkout Message was a material element of the Campaign.
- CVS intended that customers would rely upon the Checkout Message in deciding whether to make a Campaign Donation.
- Customers had no reason to believe that the Checkout Message was anything but true and accurate.
- CVS did not merely collect customers’ Campaign Donations and forward them to the ADA, but, instead, counted Campaign Donations toward the satisfaction of a legally binding obligation, which CVS had made to the ADA, to donate $10 million to the ADA during the threeyear period of 2021 through 2023 (the “CVS Obligation”).
- CVS necessarily used Campaign Donations to reimburse itself, or pay down its debt, with respect to the CVS Obligation. 2 Case 1:22-cv-03116-RPK-RML Document 1 Filed 05/26/22 Page 2 of 26 PageID #: 2
- CVS’s treatment of, and benefit from, Campaign Donations were materially different than the false, deceptive, and misleading representation that CVS had given to its customers, which was that CVS was merely collecting Campaign Donations and forwarding them to the ADA.
- On or about November 15, 2021, McCabe made a Campaign Donation at the CVS store located at 1933 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, New York 10314.
Just FYI this is a sort of scam.
The company donates the money on your behalf and they get the tax write-off for your donation while also appearing philanthropic for PR purposes. that’s why they do it.EDIT: US companies cannot do this in the US you can claim up to $300 on taxes. This is legit in the US.
@zombuey I’ve heard that a lot, but it is apparently not true unless the company claims your donation as a profit and then writes it off, which negates any tax benefit. I think it’s more just a PR thing to make you feel good about that company while using your own money.
They cannot claim it as profit if they are following the law.
I think it’s more just a PR thing to make you feel good about that company while using your own money.
Yep, even without any direct financial benefit there is certainly a reason to engage in such behavior. The store gets you to associate it with the charity campaign and they’ll make hay over the amount of donations they helped collect and their partnership with the charity. Drives for employee donations can also be used in a similar manner.
They cannot, and do not, claim your donations on their taxes.
They also store it in a bank before donating to collect interest on it cause why not?
Ah yes further proof that companies don’t give a fuck about anything ixcept making more money.
Furthermore, there is no contractual agreement on how or when they donate that money. So for example those companies might and likely will hold that money in trust to the non-profit. That way the company can use money as a hedge on taxes in future fiscal periods if they had an excess.
Shell’s audacity too…
And redirecting you attention on to the “offsets” scam too.
Ever wonder why climate change is such a problem if 1.5 pence per liter petroleum burnt can undo the damage? Spoiler: it can’t. You can’t sequester CO² for that cheap, and CO² isn’t the only issue. “Offsets” are not certified by any trustworthy third party, and companies intentionally don’t pry too much, so they can say “Oh sorry, didn’t know” if anyone investigates and discovers they did squat-all.
I hate when they pull this shit at drive through fast food. “Would you like to round up to donate to our charity?”
Who knows what the person taking my order thinks about this charity, and what they might do to someone’s food who says no.
Edit: The fact that merely implying a fast food worker wouldn’t be a complete perfect human being gets so many downvotes says a whole lot about this community.
I can assure you that nobody working at the fast food restaurant gives a shit if you donate to charity.
How can you assure me of that lol.
You think nobody at a fast food place is capable of thinking someone is an asshole for declining to donate to charity? And then acting on that?
I used to work fast food and retail, both which forced employees to ask customers to donate at the till. We hated doing it. It is awkward for both the customer and the worker. I would get anxiety when donation drive time of year would come round, and I’d feel relief when the customer either just said no or yes, and didn’t yell at me for asking. The cashier REALLY does not care if you donate or not. And the cashier usually does not make your food, it’s usually someone else doing the cooking, and the cooks aren’t paying attention at all to whether you donated or not.
Same. I got lectured so many times by customers who insisted I was stupid for daring to ask them and acted like I had some sort of personal stake in the charity.
Then most of these same people would buy a ton of lottery tickets when I was in retail.
On the other hand, I have heard people ask that question, answered yes, and then checked my receipt later to find out that I just handed $0.57 to round out the cashier’s drawer.
Or just…donate the perfectly good food they constantly throw out into the cadged dumpsters designed to keep homeless people out… Litteraly would cost them nothing…
“But if we feed them then those broke homeless people won’t come in and spend their (nonexistent) money on our food!” -upper management
PSA: most Americans can get up to $300 deducted from their annual taxes through donations.
People that give money for those charities are giving those companies free tax write offs.
You donate $10 or whatever. The company can then claim that $10 as a write off via donation to that charity. Campaign as a whole (either regional or national) collects $1M USD. Corporate accountants write off donation. Tax liability reduced.
That’s not how tax write offs work. The only way to claim that money in a write-off would be for the business to also claim it as revenue. That would even out, with no tax savings. Businesses also don’t handle donations that way, they usually serve as a collection agent that just passes your donations on without being able to claim it towards their revenue or their tax write offs. The only person who can write-off their donation is the person who actually made it.
The reason businesses do it is for marketing. They get to put out a press release saying “They helped donate $10 million to puppies without borders.”
That’s not how tax write offs work
Jerry: So we’re gonna make the Post Office pay for my new stereo now?
Kramer: It’s a write-off for them.
Jerry: How is it a write-off?
Kramer: They just write it off.
Jerry: Write it off what?
Kramer: Jerry, all these big companies, they write off everything.
Jerry: You don’t even know what a write-off is.
Kramer: Do you?
Jerry: No, I don’t.
Kramer: But they do. And they’re the ones writing it off.
Puppies do not recognize your silly imaginary borders and will commit zoomies across any such lines.
No, that’s not how it works. In order to do so, they’d have to first claim the money received as income.
That said, there are scummy things that they do. At the least, it’s saying “we [bigcorp] donated $1,000,000 to charity” when in reality all that they did was collect it. In other situations, companies like Sobey’s doesn’t actually pass on food bank donations as cash, but rather have then as credit to buy products only from Sobey’s.
That’s messed up.
Those donations you make can help them deduct from taxes, right?
Thats really jewish anyway to call a deducatable a donation.
fucking antisemite
Yes, which is why you should donate yourself if you are inclined to do so.
I think that’s a myth as it isn’t income it goes into a separate fund to transfer 1:1.
Just wait until you get a tip prompt on a self checkout kiosk…
Then they will say it is more efficient to merge the donations with regular revenue and make bulk donations every quarter or something.
To be fair, I bet these companies strike deals with the charitable organizations to in turn raise visibility of those charities among the company’s customers.
Please don’t link to Reddit.
Sorry but this sub has a policy of crediting people rather than passing content off as their own. You can always just not click the link. Lifting content without crediting the op I got it from would be unethical
It’s already lifted from Twitter, what’s the point of crediting the person who lifted it without credit?
