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#Post#: 40908--------------------------------------------------
Re: Asking for donations to cover your donation
DIR By: BeagleMommy
Date: October 23, 2019, 10:20 am
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At work we sponsor families at Thanksgiving. The procedure is
you take a form and indicate what you can afford to donate.
This is combined with other donations and we usually manage to
give several families a lovely Thanksgiving dinner.
However, if an individual says "I am sponsoring a family" to me
that means you can afford to give the entire donation.
#Post#: 41102--------------------------------------------------
Re: Asking for donations to cover your donation
DIR By: MOM21SON
Date: October 26, 2019, 4:52 pm
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A few years ago a friend introduced me to her friend that was a
very charitable person. She was always organizing fund raisers
and such. My new found friendship lasted about 1 year until I
got so sick of her. I admit, I hung on a long time just to
snoop.
She would do things like, Okay all, I have a family in need,
they need blah blah blah, If you want, you can just give me
money and I will buy whatever. Then she would post things like,
where are all my helpers???? I need your donations like
yesterday!
It just really rubbed me the wrong way. I now stick to real
charitable organizations.
#Post#: 41125--------------------------------------------------
Re: Asking for donations to cover your donation
DIR By: lakey
Date: October 27, 2019, 12:16 pm
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--- Quote ---
>
> Re: Asking for donations to cover your donation
> « Reply #10 on: October 23, 2019, 10:20:45 am »
> Quote
> At work we sponsor families at Thanksgiving. The procedure is
you take a form and indicate what you can afford to donate.
This is combined with other donations and we usually manage to
give several families a lovely Thanksgiving dinner.
>
> However, if an individual says "I am sponsoring a family" to
me that means you can afford to give the entire donation.
--- End Quote ---
I agree. At the school where I taught, each classroom would
sponsor a family for Christmas. It was presented as a group
project that students were welcome to participate in. Something
like this is a fairly big project and unless someone is wealthy,
it works best to be done by a group.
For those of us who can't afford to cover the cost of a family's
Christmas, there are all kinds of opportunities to take part
through larger organizations, food collections, toy collections,
angel trees (where you take a tag and provide a specific gift
for someone).
What the woman in this post is doing would go over better if she
were to contact some of her friends and say, "Let's go in
together to sponsor a family for Christmas." If it is a group
project, then call it a group project.
#Post#: 41166--------------------------------------------------
Re: Asking for donations to cover your donation
DIR By: Codewoman1125
Date: October 28, 2019, 2:02 pm
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I agree with everyone here, but this has brought up something
I've been considering for the last few years.
Our company has a charitable organization within the overall
company which coordinates volunteering (and some toy drives and
the like on occasion). The company ostensibly pays for people
who do the coordination - though it is an "aside" to their
normal job. But the company contribution stops there - at
allowing us to coordinate through them and offering a free
t-shirt (with the company's name in big letters, of course) to
wear while volunteering. But the company widely publicizes all
the good that our employees do. "Look at us. We are great!" All
of the volunteering time is done on nights and weekends.
I probably balk at this because I used to work for a company
that offered one day a year to each employee of paid volunteer
time (if used at a company-approved charity, and there were
dozens). We used to get together our entire team to volunteer
together for the day. It was a lovely experience. This company
also had a Charity Foundation where they had paid staff, so
legitemately contributing to good works.
My current company's "Do good works and we'll take credit"
attitude is an issue for me. Am I being over-sensitive?
#Post#: 41170--------------------------------------------------
Re: Asking for donations to cover your donation
DIR By: NFPwife
Date: October 28, 2019, 3:32 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: Codewoman1125 link ---
>
> I agree with everyone here, but this has brought up something
I've been considering for the last few years.
>
> Our company has a charitable organization within the overall
company which coordinates volunteering (and some toy drives and
the like on occasion). The company ostensibly pays for people
who do the coordination - though it is an "aside" to their
normal job. But the company contribution stops there - at
allowing us to coordinate through them and offering a free
t-shirt (with the company's name in big letters, of course) to
wear while volunteering. But the company widely publicizes all
the good that our employees do. "Look at us. We are great!" All
of the volunteering time is done on nights and weekends.
>
> I probably balk at this because I used to work for a company
that offered one day a year to each employee of paid volunteer
time (if used at a company-approved charity, and there were
dozens). We used to get together our entire team to volunteer
together for the day. It was a lovely experience. This company
also had a Charity Foundation where they had paid staff, so
legitemately contributing to good works.
>
> My current company's "Do good works and we'll take credit"
attitude is an issue for me. Am I being over-sensitive?
>
--- End Quote ---
Nope.
If I saw those pictures, I'd assume that the company had done
something to take care of the volunteers, like a drawing, nice
banquet or meal out at the end, or paid time to volunteer. The
company is taking advantage of their employees for good PR.
#Post#: 41220--------------------------------------------------
Re: Asking for donations to cover your donation
DIR By: RubyCat
Date: October 29, 2019, 3:33 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: Codewoman1125 link ---
>
> I agree with everyone here, but this has brought up something
I've been considering for the last few years.
>
> Our company has a charitable organization within the overall
company which coordinates volunteering (and some toy drives and
the like on occasion). The company ostensibly pays for people
who do the coordination - though it is an "aside" to their
normal job. But the company contribution stops there - at
allowing us to coordinate through them and offering a free
t-shirt (with the company's name in big letters, of course) to
wear while volunteering. But the company widely publicizes all
the good that our employees do. "Look at us. We are great!" All
of the volunteering time is done on nights and weekends.
>
> I probably balk at this because I used to work for a company
that offered one day a year to each employee of paid volunteer
time (if used at a company-approved charity, and there were
dozens). We used to get together our entire team to volunteer
together for the day. It was a lovely experience. This company
also had a Charity Foundation where they had paid staff, so
legitemately contributing to good works.
>
> My current company's "Do good works and we'll take credit"
attitude is an issue for me. Am I being over-sensitive?
>
--- End Quote ---
If you're oversensitive, so am I. A company I once worked for
sent out an email at least once per year asking the employees to
share what type of charity work we did on (on our own time -
they did not offer paid volunteer days) so that they could
publish all the good works of the employees. And make the
company look good. I found it very irritating and shared
nothing about any volunteering I'd done.
#Post#: 41222--------------------------------------------------
Re: Asking for donations to cover your donation
DIR By: Hmmm
Date: October 29, 2019, 4:22 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: RubyCat link ---
>
> [quote author=Codewoman1125 link=topic=1377.msg41166#msg41166
date=1572289356]
> I agree with everyone here, but this has brought up something
I've been considering for the last few years.
>
> Our company has a charitable organization within the overall
company which coordinates volunteering (and some toy drives and
the like on occasion). The company ostensibly pays for people
who do the coordination - though it is an "aside" to their
normal job. But the company contribution stops there - at
allowing us to coordinate through them and offering a free
t-shirt (with the company's name in big letters, of course) to
wear while volunteering. But the company widely publicizes all
the good that our employees do. "Look at us. We are great!" All
of the volunteering time is done on nights and weekends.
>
> I probably balk at this because I used to work for a company
that offered one day a year to each employee of paid volunteer
time (if used at a company-approved charity, and there were
dozens). We used to get together our entire team to volunteer
together for the day. It was a lovely experience. This company
also had a Charity Foundation where they had paid staff, so
legitemately contributing to good works.
>
> My current company's "Do good works and we'll take credit"
attitude is an issue for me. Am I being over-sensitive?
>
--- End Quote ---
If you're oversensitive, so am I. A company I once worked for
sent out an email at least once per year asking the employees to
share what type of charity work we did on (on our own time -
they did not offer paid volunteer days) so that they could
publish all the good works of the employees. And make the
company look good. I found it very irritating and shared
nothing about any volunteering I'd done.
[/quote]
I think it depends on the overall company and their willingness
to support employee volunteer activities or donations. For
example with my company:
-we do have a corporate foundation where employee charitable
donations is matched
-my boss, and most of us, is fine with me taking a few hours
here or there to support a volunteer activity I do without
having to take vacation time
- they provide opportunities for employees to volunteer and
support a charitable activity and provide some support for it.
For example the "fill the backpack drive" has employees doing
most of the work and donations, but we definitely use corporate
resources to collect, store, organize and distribute the items.
They also "gift" the cost of marketing the program internally
with signs and collection points.
-they provide non-monetary incentives to participate in some
activities. For example, if you participate or volunteer in a
specific civic activity you get a wrist band allowing you to
wear jeans for a week.
-annually, employees can submit requests to the foundation to
request funding of specific charitable organizations in all 35
countries we have offices in. The more employees who volunteer
their time to those events, the higher the likelihood the
charity would get a donation from the foundation.
I obviously work for a large company that can afford this type
of support. The charitable foundation must operate separately
due to federal laws. I don't fault smaller companies who want to
encourage their employees to participate in charitable
activities but may not have the resources to financially suppor
them.
#Post#: 41290--------------------------------------------------
Re: Asking for donations to cover your donation
DIR By: Twik
Date: October 31, 2019, 8:25 am
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: Hmmm link ---
>
> I don't fault smaller companies who want to encourage their
employees to participate in charitable activities but may not
have the resources to financially suppor them.
>
--- End Quote ---
I do - *if* they use this as part of their "corporate image."
My company does some things, like food and toy drives. But we
don't splash it all over the company advertising. It's arranged
by staff, for staff, and not a "top down" thing at all.
What some people have described here is a company using people's
own time and money for its own aggrandization.
#Post#: 41293--------------------------------------------------
Re: Asking for donations to cover your donation
DIR By: Hmmm
Date: October 31, 2019, 9:19 am
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: Twik link ---
>
> [quote author=Hmmm link=topic=1377.msg41222#msg41222
date=1572384129]
> I don't fault smaller companies who want to encourage their
employees to participate in charitable activities but may not
have the resources to financially suppor them.
>
--- End Quote ---
I do - *if* they use this as part of their "corporate image."
My company does some things, like food and toy drives. But we
don't splash it all over the company advertising. It's arranged
by staff, for staff, and not a "top down" thing at all.
What some people have described here is a company using people's
own time and money for its own aggrandization.
[/quote]
Like I said, it depends on the circumstances. If I worked for a
smallish start up company and using my personal volunteer work
gives a way to get free positive press, go for it. I'd be happy
if it helped with the success of the company is some manner.
I guess it really depends on how you feel about the company you
work for. If I feel like they are overall a good corporate
citizen or small business that supported the community, I
wouldn't feel exploited. If I felt they were out for the money
only and treated the employees like crap then, I probably
wouldn't want them to use my personal activities for their
benefits. I've been fortunate. In my 30 plus years of working,
I've only been with 2 companies for a total of 4 years that I
didn't feel some pride in working for the company.
#Post#: 41296--------------------------------------------------
Re: Asking for donations to cover your donation
DIR By: Twik
Date: October 31, 2019, 10:37 am
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: Hmmm link ---
>
> If I felt they were out for the money only and treated the
employees like crap then, I probably wouldn't want them to use
my personal activities for their benefits. I've been fortunate.
In my 30 plus years of working, I've only been with 2 companies
for a total of 4 years that I didn't feel some pride in working
for the company.
>
--- End Quote ---
All companies are "out for the money." Even the ones who still
treat their employees decently. There's always a new manager or
CEO waiting in the wings with plans to squeeze a little bit more
out of the workers, and companies whose profits depend even a
bit on leveraging their employees' generosity are capable of
turning a nice voluntary gesture into something that's
essentially required off-hour employment at no pay.
There was a well-regarded artistic factory near where I grew up.
Apparently you had to "donate" at least one weekend a month to
"volunteer" work, so the company could proclaim its noble
devotion to good causes. If you didn't, you were considered "not
a team player" and would soon find yourself being constructively
disemployed.
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