Experts Skeptical About Value of Charity Product Ties
December 13, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
The practice of companies including a donation in the purchase price of items such as clothing or jewelry has some charity experts concerned that such promotions are more about marketing than helping charities, reports The New York Times.
Experts say that the practice, which some consultants have termed “embedded giving,” is unregulated. Many charities and corporate partners decline to reveal how much money is raised or how money is distributed.
Lucy Bernholz, founder of Blueprint Research and Design, a consulting firm for nonprofit organizations, said, “It’s virtuousness as a marketing gimmick run amok.”
In one example, the World Wildlife Fund was the unwitting beneficiary of a giving program mentioned in the Barneys New York “Have a Green Holiday” catalog. The charity discovered this only after being contacted by the newspaper for the story.
Some experts worry that mixing products and charitable donations could decrease direct contributions to charities. Timothy N. Ogden, chief knowledge officer at Geneva Global, a philanthropic consulting firm, said, “Once purchasing and giving are conflated, the consumer is likely to conflate retailers and charities.”
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