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Yay, it's annual (almost) forced charitable giving time again!

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  • Yay, it's annual (almost) forced charitable giving time again!

    My company runs an annual fundraising drive for a well known charity which I'll call Combined Direction.

    Two weeks ago they held a mandatory team meeting for all employees at a local conference center to kick off this years campaign. It's the same as before: "you don't HAVE to give, it's YOUR choice, but we're going to beat you over the head with it as much as we can regardless of what you do."

    What was funny is, in one of the several presentations we received on how awesome this charity is and how important it is to give, the presenter (who I think was one of our HR guys) repeatedly stated the company was NOT trying to pressure us into giving.

    Hmmm...sure you're not.

    Look I have no problem with people who want to give. I give to charities too, just not to this particular one and it gets old going through this every year. Out of a two hour meeting, approximately 25 minutes were actual company business, 15 or so was promotions/giveaways and the remaining hour and a bit was dedicated to the charity drive.

    But no, no pressure here at all folks.
    "If we refund your money, give you a free replacement and shoot the manager, then will you be happy?" - sign seen in a restaurant

  • #2
    They did this at the mail order CD club I used to work at. They offered all kinds of incentives to get people to give, such as extra paid vacation days, Visa gift cards, restaurant gift cards, etc. I really did not want to give because I do not agree with the amount of your donation that goes to "administration." Then I found out that you can complete a card that requires that 100% of your donation go to a specific local charity - but they don't want you to know about this. In fact, at our presentations they would always beg us not to complete that card, as they need $$ to go to administration.

    Well, I always requested the card and always specified that my entire donation (around $20 per pay for a year) go the the "Men & Women's Club" in my hometown. I always received a letter directly from the charity thanking me for my donation. The letter always included the amount of the donation and it always matched the total of the amount taken biweekly from my pay.
    "I guess they see another cash cow just waiting to be dry humped." - Irving Patrick Freleigh

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    • #3
      A few years ago, my company did the same thing (same charity, too). Very high pressure attempts to get us to donate. When I got an email from the HR administrator asking why I hadn't signed up, I told her in no uncertain terms that I donated to the charities that I felt were worth giving my money to, not the one that the company decided that I should give to, and any further pressure to donate from anyone at the company would be considered harassment and treated as such.

      I heard one more thing about it. That night as I was leaving , I got a snarky "You didn't have to be rude about it" as I walked out the door. To say that I let her have it would be an understatement.

      We stopped doing that charity drive the next year. We still have a local food bank charity drive every year that I do contribute to.
      Last edited by Crossbow; 08-22-2013, 09:35 PM. Reason: I can't type.
      "If your day is filled with firefighting, you need to start taking the matches away from the toddlers…” - HM

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      • #4
        I like to give the OP a for reminding me I have to deal with Combined Direction in just a bit over a month.

        Fortunately the pressure to donate is nowhere near as bad as it once was. It's all done on the computer; you put in the amount you choose to donate, if anything, and you're left alone so nobody knows if you donated or not.
        Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.

        "I never said I wasn't a horrible person."--Me, almost daily

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        • #5
          For the last 4 or 5 years (I think) we've had the Alex's Lemonade Stand going on for about a week and a half that we have stuff just outside the front door and inside the lobby area in the entrance, we had games, candy stickers from the dollar store, lemonade of course, and lemon flavored bakery items. I always liked it and always volunteered to help, and I always donated except for this year because our new store manager thought that it would be too distracting for us and be a waste of money to just do it for only a week and a half. Instead this year we had bouquets of daisies with crappy looking plastic lemons in them, and we didn't have the option to donate. I've never had a charity pushed on me, I think it sucks that they're trying to make you donate that you don't want to. I was happy to donate to Alex's because it had to do with childhood cancer.
          ......../\
          ....../__\
          ..../\...../\
          ../__\../__\

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          • #6
            *twitch* *twitch* Forgive me. We're in the midst of schilling for donations for a certain Association having to do with sending kids to summer camp at work. I was told under no uncertain terms that I was going to sell the pinups we have, whether I want to or not. We're getting pushed to sell them from corporate on down. It's a good cause, I'll say that, but damn it gets tiresome. The other issue is, I see pretty much the same customers every single day. No exaggeration. Makes it hard to sell the donations when you know you already asked virtually everyone that comes in!
            "And though she be but little, she is FIERCE!"--Shakespeare

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            • #7
              I decided to donate some of my hard earned money to a charity of my choice today. I was proud to donate some money to a cause that I believed in, and will do good in my opinion.

              I, however, would be disgusted being pressured to donate to a charity through work, and would say so to higher ups.
              "Life is tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid" Redd Foxx as Al Royal - The Royal Family - Pilot Episode - 1991.

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              • #8
                A couple of my prior employers did a very hard push for Combined Direction, too.

                Including having the HR manager stop by my desk with a new card because 'I must have lost the first one since it wasn't turned in.' Yeah, that must be it.

                Currently, the only hard sell I get comes from the co-worker I hate anyway. And she's always shilling for a religious charity. As I point out each year: I'm the open atheist of the office, I don't give to charities affiliated with any specific religion, and even if I did, I make all my donations privately and anonymously. After 3 years, you would think she would get a clue.

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                • #9
                  Quoth Gerrinson View Post
                  After 3 years, you would think she would get a clue.
                  Some people are just under the belief that if you keep asking them and/or pushing, it'll get you what you want.
                  The best professors are mad scientists! -Zoom

                  Now queen of USSR-Land...

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                  • #10
                    Quoth fireheart View Post
                    Some people are just under the belief that if you keep asking them and/or pushing, it'll get you what you want.
                    Sadly, many of those people seem to get promoted to management positions, or similar positions where they can make that a policy and punish people who don't meet the quotas because they aren't 'asking or pushing enough'.

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                    • #11
                      Quoth Irving Patrick Freleigh View Post
                      I like to give the OP a for reminding me I have to deal with Combined Direction in just a bit over a month.

                      Fortunately the pressure to donate is nowhere near as bad as it once was. It's all done on the computer; you put in the amount you choose to donate, if anything, and you're left alone so nobody knows if you donated or not.
                      That's how they've started doing it where I work....not as much pressure to donate, but you do "have" to at least respond. (although I did forget one year, and no one ever said anything to me about it)

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                      • #12
                        I was not aware that you could sign a card designating your entire contribution to go to your specified charity! They've never told us that at work. Interesting...
                        When you start at zero, everything's progress.

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                        • #13
                          I haven't had to deal with one of those in decades, literally. I think there may be a state law decision because of the Combined Direction, that employers can't push employees to give. Anyway, Combined Direction has fallen out of favor so much, I wasn't even sure they still existed.

                          We do food drives every year, but nothing is required. You can go online and donate, or write a check. We had a toy drive last year, which was new and a lot of fun.
                          Labor boards have info on local laws for free
                          HR believes the first person in the door
                          Learn how to go over whackamole bosses' heads safely
                          Document everything
                          CS proves Dunning-Kruger effect

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                          • #14
                            Quoth KellyHabersham View Post
                            That's how they've started doing it where I work....not as much pressure to donate, but you do "have" to at least respond. (although I did forget one year, and no one ever said anything to me about it)
                            They used to do it that way at my job. They'd send a form out to everyone to fill out, even if you weren't donating. I never even bothered filling it out, and no one ever said anything to me. They stopped doing that at some point. I actually forgot all about it until I saw this thread.
                            Sometimes life is altered.
                            Break from the ropes your hands are tied.
                            Uneasy with confrontation.
                            Won't turn out right. Can't turn out right

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                            • #15
                              Hmmm, sounds very much like the charity we were "urged" to donate to at my last fulltime employer (the Daily Paper). I never did, mostly because I very much dislike being pressured to donate. There was the occasional "reminder" but it was actually pretty mild.

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