Dark Rose

Fundraisers in the Workplace

Nowadays many stores are participating in raising money for various charities and organizations; whether or not this due to generosity or a facade depends on the store. Regardless, if you head to checkout in a store, there is a good chance you’ll be asked for a donation to benefit cause X, Y or Z. The store I work for hosts various fundraisers year round, and since I’m now working 30+ hours a week, you can bet your ass I’ve asked the washed out “would you like to donate a dollar to…?” question so many times I think about it in my sleep. Yeah, it’s that bad.

So, first of all, a couple of observations I’ve made while asking for donations:

1. The reaction to the question of donating is always interesting. Some customers are very happy to donate two or three dollars at a time and others only need me to get to the word “donate” before they interrupt me to ask what their total is. The responses I receive the most are “not today” and “I already have,” although I’ve also received the rare “the government already takes away enough of my money, and now you want some too?” statement.
2. When I ask, I make sure I ask everybody. I don’t skip someone because they’re paying with food stamps; actually, you’d be surprised how many of them would be happy to donate to so and so organization even when they themselves are receiving a little help from the government. And for those customers that seem 100% sure to turn me down just from the look of them… I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been secretly surprised by the generosity of the customers. Even the most intimidating looking person is willing to help out others.

It’s great that even in economic hardship, there are people who are willing to help out a cause. However, it all depends on the cashier, too. Some cashiers don’t care enough, are lazy, or just don’t remember to ask when they are ringing up orders. People are generous enough to donate, but how are they going to know that a donation drive is happening if the cashier doesn’t ask?

If you have never worked as a cashier at a store that does donation drives, then you may not know that companies try to provide incentive to get them out there and asking so that an optimal amount of money can be raised. Popping the question isn’t exactly an altruistic thing; the vast majority of us have an ulterior motive because of it and the donation drive becomes a competition. Look at mine. The person who gets the most donations per hour (number of donations divided by hours worked during the drive) wins an iPod and a $25 gift card for iTunes. The store also offers other prizes and posts the list of prizes on a poster by the clock so everyone is aware.

And while it’s great that the store is trying to generate an interest in the drive, I don’t think this is the right way to do it. No, I don’t have a better suggestion, yes, I know that the best way to get someone to do something for others is to offer a personal incentive for them. But it’s not right. This is for a charity and it should not be made into a competition for some material possessions. Just the other day, mom went into K-Mart, and you know what the cashier said to her? “Please donate, these two other girls are beating me!!” Yeah, that’ll get me to part with my money. I’m more likely to donate out of the goodness of my heart, or even the pressure of feeling guilty if I don’t, than I am because of a petty competition behind the scenes. It belittles the purpose of the drive and it discourages me from even thinking of donating there again, even if I believe in the cause.

Rewarding people for raking in donations is all well and good, but why not make the prizes a secret thing that you don’t even know about until you’ve done enough to earn them? This way, the right people are rewarded and the spirit of the charity is kept intact. The problem is, just how many people would participate with this method? Unfortunately, I don’t think there would be many.

I know it’s not especially right of me to be speaking out against this; hell, to be completely honest, I just received prizes the other day for my own drive. Not to sound holier than thou, but, despite what my coworkers think, I don’t especially care about the prizes. I ask because it comes with my job, it’s nice to help out, and it’s uplifting to see that there are generous strangers out there, breaking all preconceived notions and molds they were originally thought to fit into. There is so much potential in everyone, coworkers and customers alike, to make the donation drives successful, and that is exactly why it’s so horrible to see the integrity of the charity destroyed before it even touches the customer.

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I posted Fundraisers in the Workplace on Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 at 9:48 am in Work.

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