craigm1841

Okay, so I am in vitamin shoppe picking up some suppliments and I am checking out. The guy at the counter goes "would you like to donate 1 dollar to stop childhood blindness? For every dollar donated, you will prevent 4 children from getting childhood blindness."

now I am in a prediciment. I dont donate money except if it goes to Animals, children, or E60.net. I am all about helping kids, so naturally I want to donate a dollar, and vitamin shoppe is a huge chain and probably not into scamming customers, but this sounded fishy. so I say sarcastically "if I donate a dollar, 4 children wont become blind?" cashier says "yes, that is correct" so i say "well, if i dontate 20 bucks, i will save 80 kids from becomming blind?" he says "yes, i suppose so, but you can only donate a dollar per transaction". So, i say "i hardly believe this is true, because why wouldnt someone, maybe the government kick in 50K to whoever is taking this money and just cure childhood blindness for years and years to come? is this 1 single dollar going to save 4 children?" and he says "now that you say that, it doesnt seem like it makes a whole lot of sense, and i understand if you dont want to donate a dollar now, i dont think i would after hearing that logic" so i say, well "I will donate a dollar because it is not worth having it on my conscious just in case, but i think you guys need to be careful about how you word this" and he said "i was just saying what we were told to say" and i just finished paying and left....

moral of the story is, I may or may not have saved four children from becomming blind this week. and if i you need protien powder or multi vitamins, you too can possibly save only four children from childhood blindness for a dollar.


i know this was random, but i am not working with anyone tonight and i wanted to share my story with someone.

lorinzo

Thanks for lookin' out for the kids.

I often run into a similar situation... almost everywhere there is a request to donate a dollar here for this and that. However, with all the shady corporate accounting practices, I wonder if this money ever gets into the right hands. If it does, how much of your dollar does it take as an "administration" fee?

I have decided to say "no" to the donation at the grocery store and instead give directly to the charity.

lorinzo

As I was saying.....


From the Los Angeles Times
May 30, 2009

Charity fundraisers targeted in state lawsuits
Intended recipients -- police, firefighters and veterans -- allegedly got little or no money.

California has sued 17 telemarketers and 12 other organizations, state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown said Friday, as part of a national crackdown on charity fundraisers accused of passing little or no money on to legitimate charities.

Brown said the 53 individuals named in the state's suits "shamelessly exploited the goodwill of decent citizens trying to help police, firefighters and veterans."