Forced Philanthropy

Have you ever been forced to “volunteer” or “donate” time or money by your employer? I’m running into the same issue at my current job that I had in my last job; forced philanthropy.

As a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) I spend between 5 and 20 hours per month volunteering my time to help my two CASA kids in their struggle to be adopted. I spend time with the kids, their foster parents and their social workers. I write reports to the court that are disbursed to the children’s parents and their attorneys. I wait in Juvenal Court for up to four hours until my case is called and our hearing takes place. This is something I want to do, I volunteered.

I used to work in a law firm. I guess October is the month charities generally ask for donations because it’s after summer and before Christmas. For one week I, along with everyone in the firm, was hounded by email and pressured to donate money to United Way. There was a way to donate using our intranet and deduct our donation directly from our next paycheck. By Thursday I hadn’t donated, and I began to get emails “reminding” me to. Creepily, the email appeared to have been sent to only me, from someone in HR. After a minute I realized that he simply bcc’d everyone, to make it appear as a direct deman, er request.

I didn’t have anything deducted from my paycheck, but there was a coin drive and I tossed in a few bucks a few times. On Friday there was a big “Party” for the firm. There were gift baskets auctioned off for the benefit. I bought something for an auction basket too. And then I ended up “winning” an auction basket. It was a couple hundred bucks and my name didn’t end up on the list of people who donated. Not that it’s why I helped out, but when the thank you letters from United Way came out the following month, I didn’t get one.

Some people feel that the United Way spends too much money on administration and not enough on the people they aim to help. I haven’t researched it, so I can’t confirm or deny this allegation.

Tomorrow my current company is paying anyone who will “volunteer” to go out and help some local organizations. Initially, I was skeptical about being paid by my company to volunteer for another. We are to rake leaves, paint a fence… whatever, and if I don’t participate, everyone I work with will know and call me Scrooge McDuck. And that’s what these organizations prey on; people feeling guilty. So, they pressure, guilt trip and bully to get time and money.

I’m not opposed to helping out tomorrow, but it’s mostly because one of my CASA kids plays basketball at the Boys and Girls Club we will be cleaning and I’m kinda neurotic about cleaning. I like cleaning and I like things being clean.

Tomorrow I will be volunteering and I’m getting paid for it.