Wonderful Charity Opportunity or Marketing Opportunity?

[magenta321]

Help Make a Child's Wishes Come True
The NBC Today show has teamed with Amazon.com and our partner Office Depot to create a Wish List of items to benefit children of all ages this holiday season. Want to make a child's holiday that much brighter? Visit the Today show gift drive's Wish List.

(currently on the Amazon.com home page)

Sigh. Part of me wants to say this is wonderful. I assume, although I have not found any text to indicate so, that this will benefit needy children.

I can't help but think it's also helping Amazon, and that is the primary motivation.

What do you think? Am I a horrible cynic?

[brian_igo]

I'm not exactly the voice of reason when it comes to skepticisim, but I heard that this morning on Today and had the same reaction.

My local NBC affiliate (WNDU for the Notre Dame alums) has the best history of public service I've seen from a newspaper or broadcaster. I make a point to donate to their Toys for Tots drive with the Marine Corps Reserve every year. I'm not alone. By capita this is always one of the most sucessful Toys for Tots programs in the country.

I mention this because when they do a remote it literally brings out hundreds of people. Perhaps not coincidentially, they always seem to get the host location (retail store, auto dealership, mall, whatever) to kick in a substantial donation of cash or merchandise for the drive. When that happens I don't have a problem buying the gift at the store where the drive is being held.

But I don't see that in the Amazon/Today program. I also have to wonder why instead of trying to run this program through two macro organizations, Today couldn't use the technology that makes Amazon possible to organize and run a nationwide campaign that works with the local affiliates and charities?


Brian

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Like Avon's Breast Cancer fundraiser(s) don't help Avon? Or Ford's donating cars and SUV's to The Salvation Army's WTC efforts don't help Ford?

Any time a company has something to do with raising money for a cause, it's not wholly altruistic. They get good press. They encourage people to purchase their products. They get a tax deduction for their money spent.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a total cynic. But there are company fundraisers and company fundraisers. Always read the fine print: how much of every dollar of profit is going to the cause? What's the limit? Sometimes it's "Company X will give $Y for every Widget purchased, up to $Z," and if "Z" is a low amount, you can be pretty sure they'd already budgeted for that amount whether people bought Widgets or not.

Investigate the details just like you would a large purchase that seems to be a can't-miss deal.

mj

[frazzledspice]

Looking and shopping are two different things. You can see what's on the Amazon wish list and buy it wherever you want.

Certainly if time is a big issue people would buy the items at Amazon. But how much longer would it take them to look on Dealtime and see exactly where the best price is offered for the item they select? Or to go to current codes and see if any coupons are available? Or to go to ebates and get a rebate?

I don't look at getting the best value for your charitable dollar as being any less charitable. If anything, it allows you to be more charitable by making charitable giving less expensive.