Holiday Shopping for a Cause
Just the Tip:
Before you buy something because part of the price goes to charity, find out how much the charity gets per purchase. When the share is small, buy only what you’d buy anyway and give to the charity directly. A $10 gift sends 10 times as much as a $40 purchase that donates $1.
A holiday promotion names the cause it helps, but the company’s deal with the charity sets the charity’s share of each sale. Not every promotion says what that share is.
The BBB Wise Giving Alliance’s standards for charities say a promotion should state the dollar amount or percentage of the price that goes to the charity, how long the campaign runs, and any cap on what it will donate. A vague promise to donate proceeds or profits doesn’t meet them, and 10% of the profit on a sale can be far less than 10% of its price. A cap matters because purchases made after the promotion hits it add nothing.
Say a store gives a food bank $1 for every $40 sweater it sells. If you’d buy the sweater anyway, that dollar is a bonus. If you’d buy it only to help, skip it and give the food bank $10 yourself, which gets the food bank $10 instead of $1 and costs you $10 instead of $40.
Before you buy, look for the share, the dates, any cap, and the charity’s name. A request to round up your total at the register should name its charity too, not just a cause like hunger relief. If the charity is new to you, make sure it’s real before you give.
Shopping for a cause makes the most sense for gifts you’d buy anyway. Buy them from a nonprofit’s own shop, such as a museum store, where the nonprofit keeps the profit, or from a social enterprise, a business built around a cause.
Give the money you mean to donate straight to the charity, on Giving Tuesday, Dec. 1 this year, or any other day. An employer that matches gifts dollar for dollar doubles a direct gift, and a charity gift card lets someone on your list choose the charity.
Decide how much you’ll give this season before you shop, and count any donation that comes with a purchase as extra.
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