• fsk@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Those charities have huge overhead. Very little money goes to the actual cause.

  • MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • LukeMedia@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.

      • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.

  • zombuey@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

      • zombuey@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.

  • norapink@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I hate these donate screens because I have no idea where the donation actually goes and i don’t want to have to do a ton of research at the grocery checkout about whether its a good charity.

    • iAmTheTot@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I have never seen a donation bin/screen/what have you that didn’t say what charity it was for.

      If a business is collecting donations and then not giving them to the charities in question, that’s just fraud.

      • norapink@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Yeah but just because they name the charity doesn’t mean its a good charity. Some charities just aren’t good ones to donate to and you’re basically just throwing money down a well when you do donate to them.

  • malloc@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • stankmut@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.”

      • cod@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.

    • phx@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.

    • Janus67@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I think that’s a myth as it isn’t income it goes into a separate fund to transfer 1:1.

      • neanderthal@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Even if it is revenue, it is still a net loss. All it does is reduce taxable income, which is still makes the donation a net loss. For anyone not aware, the current federal US corporate income tax rate is 21%. So if a company gives 100 dollars to charity, they only save 21 dollars in taxes, so they are still down roughly 79 dollars, depending on the state taxes of where they are incorporated.

        • git@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Yeah but in this scenerio company isn’t the one giving that 100 dollars, customers gives company 100 dollars to donate, company donates it, gets 21 Dollars back. Which is a 21 dollar profit for the company

    • neanderthal@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Here me out before accusing me of being a billionaire toady.

      Not really, at least not in the US. Charitable contributions are a deduction from taxable income, not a credit, so it is still a net financial loss to donate.

      Where the benefit comes is the PR and power over the organization they donate to and its sphere of influence.

      • git@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It is a net loss if you donate your own money, in this situation Company isn’t donating from it’s own revenue. It is donating customers money.

        If I donated 1000$ and claimed tax deductible it would be a net loss. But if I asked everyone for donations, raised 1000$, donated that and claimed tax deductible that wouldn’t be a net loss.

  • tomve_cz@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    It’s still fine.

    Some big international store in europe is asking to buy food from them for full price and donate it to food bank. Fuckin hilarious for making profit on charity.

    • Izzgo@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      This is actually true. But those small margins add up to a huge profit overall. Still, they probably could not afford to donate $20 per shopper.

    • bfg9k@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Hard to believe this when our supermarket giants (Coles, Woolworths) are posting record billions in profits.

      They aren’t ‘hard done by’. They make money hand over fist.

  • Spacecraft@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • sirkook@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I can assure you that nobody working at the fast food restaurant gives a shit if you donate to charity.

      • Spacecraft@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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?

        • TskUghPfftUhh@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          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.

          • danielton@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            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.

          • lightingnerd@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            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.

    • Smoogs@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Don’t tip on those things. The company supplying those things are getting the cut. And it’s mandatory. They are an office space scam.