Here’s an interesting take on the growing trend of letting consumers choose where corporate donations are directed. From an article on examiner.com:
The Bank of America Chicago Marathon launched its first-ever digital fundraising program called Footprints for Charity. You can customize a digital running shoe tread with a personal image and tailored message at www.chicagomarathon.com/footprint. For each submission, Bank of America will donate $1 to your choice of one of 22 charities, up to a maximum total contribution of $50,000. Then, on October 11 (race day), the final results of the fundraising effort will be announced and an additional $10,000 will be awarded to the charity that received the most submissions on its behalf.
You can register and create a footprint here.
Here’s my take on these kinds of “fundraising contests”: it’s not fundraising. Bank of America has presumably committed the funds. Rather, it’s a marketing effort by Bank of America to get people to see and acknowledge its charitable donations by giving them the sense that they’re earning it.
“Design your digital footprint and help make a difference!”
This line plays to the worst kind of slacktivism, where people click a few times on their computer and get a gold star for being philanthropic. Actually donating or raising money for these causes through the Chicago Marathon would be philanthropic. Creating a digital shoe print is not.
I don’t know why this aggravates me. Maybe because these efforts come across as so transparently marketing-driven instead of genuinely altruistic. Maybe I should just be glad they’re giving money to charity and leave them alone. But what I always fear is that members of the charitably-minded public, facing a dearth of good information about corporate social responsibility, will erect a shiny halo around these companies based on highly-publicized if proportionately minuscule contributions to charity.
I’m not suggesting Bank of America is not a fantastic corporate social citizen. Maybe they are, I have no idea. But that’s my point. Savvy consumers need to look at these efforts as an advanced marketing tactic that’s designed to get past our normal critical defenses by pushing the “charity” button in our brain.
