• MobileSuitBagera@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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    2 years ago

    Remember kids, they also get to use the money they guilted off of you to reduce their tax liability because they get credit for donating your money!

    • Kostas@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      This is not true. I am not from the US or a lawyer but these donations sould show up on your receipt and count as your direct donation to the charity. The store is just a middleman and does not get any benefit. Here is a random, semi recent article about it you can find a lot more if you look it up online.

      • axtualdave@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        It depends on exactly what the store is doing.

        If the store is representing the extra charge as a donation to a specific charity, generally, the customer can deduct that.

        If it’s far more vague, like, “Give $10 to help poor kids in Africa” the ultimate destination for the funds could be the company’s own ledgers, which it would then use for its own charitable activities and collect the tax deduction, as long as they “help poor kids in Africa.”

        And some stores are just lying. CVS, for instance, was sued as part of a class action suit when, after the company pledges $10 million to the American Diabetes Association, then collected money from customers to fund that pledge.

  • fsk@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Those charities have huge overhead. Very little money goes to the actual cause.

  • zombuey@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Just FYI this is a sort of scam. The company donates the money on your behalf and they get the tax write-off for your donation while also appearing philanthropic for PR purposes. that’s why they do it.

    • seang96@spgrn.com
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      2 years ago

      They also store it in a bank before donating to collect interest on it cause why not?

      • zombuey@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Furthermore, there is no contractual agreement on how or when they donate that money. So for example those companies might and likely will hold that money in trust to the non-profit. That way the company can use money as a hedge on taxes in future fiscal periods if they had an excess.

  • MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    My favorite one is when our utility company asks me to donate to help pay for people’s utilities like they aren’t raking in record amount of cash.

  • Spacecraft@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    I hate when they pull this shit at drive through fast food. “Would you like to round up to donate to our charity?”

    Who knows what the person taking my order thinks about this charity, and what they might do to someone’s food who says no.

    • sirkook@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      I can assure you that nobody working at the fast food restaurant gives a shit if you donate to charity.

      • Spacecraft@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        How can you assure me of that lol.

        You think nobody at a fast food place is capable of thinking someone is an asshole for declining to donate to charity? And then acting on that?

        • TskUghPfftUhh@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          I used to work fast food and retail, both which forced employees to ask customers to donate at the till. We hated doing it. It is awkward for both the customer and the worker. I would get anxiety when donation drive time of year would come round, and I’d feel relief when the customer either just said no or yes, and didn’t yell at me for asking. The cashier REALLY does not care if you donate or not. And the cashier usually does not make your food, it’s usually someone else doing the cooking, and the cooks aren’t paying attention at all to whether you donated or not.

          • danielton@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            Same. I got lectured so many times by customers who insisted I was stupid for daring to ask them and acted like I had some sort of personal stake in the charity.

            Then most of these same people would buy a ton of lottery tickets when I was in retail.

  • terwn43lp@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    PSA: most Americans can get up to $300 deducted from their annual taxes through donations.

  • Lifecoach5000@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    And I will never ever give these fools my actual phone number for discounts. Just use any area code w/ 867-5309 to get around this.

    • jackoneill@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Jenny Jenny, who can I turn to? You give me something I can hold on to. I know you think I’m like the others before who saw your name and number on the wall

  • demvoter@kbin.social
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    2 years ago

    I don’t trust them to actually donate anyway. How would you ever find out? I suspect these are scams to hold the money and get interest off it even if they do ultimately donate it.

    • Ertebolle@kbin.social
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      2 years ago

      Even assuming this isn’t a scam, it’s certainly not something they’re doing out of the goodness of their hearts - must be some combination of a) a tax write-off and b) an opportunity to claim credit for other people’s donations. (“Stop & Shop is proud to have donated $275,000 this quarter to help families in need”)

      • chaogomu@kbin.social
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        2 years ago

        You forgot c) the donation is processed via the corporation’s own charity foundation, and skims some money off the top to pay for the salaries of the people “running” the foundation. i.e. the c-suite of the company, or their relatives.

    • Slartibartfast@kbin.social
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      2 years ago

      Not sure if this is 100% accurate, but I heard that how it works is they donate the money first, get the tax write-off and then try to hit people up at the checkouts to refund all the money after the fact. That way they get the tax break for donating the money without actually being out of pocket. I don’t know what happens if people donate more than the amount they spent, but I think I can take a reasonable guess.

  • mcc@sh.itjust.works
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    2 years ago

    Then they will say it is more efficient to merge the donations with regular revenue and make bulk donations every quarter or something.

  • realcaseyrollins@kbin.projectsegfau.lt
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    2 years ago

    To be fair, I bet these companies strike deals with the charitable organizations to in turn raise visibility of those charities among the company’s customers.