Am I the only one that thinks fundraising at work is wrong?

I teach in universities as adjunct (contract) faculty. For over a decade now, United Way has been contacting me at work through various universities. Every year they ask, every year I tell them never to contact me again. But this is a once-a-year-dance, so no big deal.

I am also starting to be asked by my department to give cash for Christmas gifts to staff. I can’t imagine asking a subordinate to give me money, and think this is wrong: am I old-fashioned? Crazy? (Not that the staff don’t deserve it, of course. I just think the people at the top with secure jobs pulling down six figures should be the ones to pony up.)

Now we are also being asked to do community fundraising, both to give ourselves and to encourage students to attend fundraising events. I’ve refused point-blank because I think it’s flat-out unethical to ask students to spend money on something not directly related to their education in my courses. I agree with the missions of all the charities being supported, and can’t fault people’s hearts. I just sense a bit of performative morality, and that’s not a game I want to play at work. Plus, I really do feel the pressure to attend these events (as it’s obvious who doesn’t go), and I don’t think work should be pay-to-play more than it already is.

This is a broader trend of being asked for spare change not just by the indigent, but by the wealthy (every time I go to the grocery store, pet store; cafés and take-out places ask for tips; restaurants have abandoned the 15% tip and are pushing for 18%, 20%, or even 25%). Plus Facebook’s birthday fundraisers, gofundme, etc.: asking people for cash no longer seems to be taboo the same way it is in my half-century-old head.

So, my humble opinion is that workplace charity should be conducted by employers on the company’s / institution’s behalf, but not by employees, and funds should not be raised FROM employees. Teachers and professors should not be asking students for money except when directly related to education. Corporations are welcome to sell items and services at a profit of their determination, but should not ask for us to donate more on top of that.

I mean, late capitalism and greed are things in our culture; I know this trend cannot be stopped. But am I wrong to think it’s unethical? Am I the only one exhausted by the constant appeals from everybody, and the only one who feels bad about saying no every time (but still say no every time)?

Mostly I’m in agreement, but I think it depends on how you’re being asked: is it something you have to specifically refuse, or is it a general appeal that can easily be ignored?

If some people were asked but not others (e.g. to contribute to gifts for staff), some of those who weren’t asked might feel offended at being left out.

That’s less bizarre than my wife’s situation, where the boss offered to take his underlings out for a Christmas lunch and then one of the underlings started collecting money from the other underlings to buy the boss a present. Wait, what? I need to pay my boss to take me out to lunch? Or we need to give him a kickback?

General appeal, and asked in the nicest possible way. I’m more concerned with whether my ethics are out of whack, because while not offended I just find it SO inappropriate, but see increasing evidence that asking people for money is, in fact, appropriate. I don’t know if it’s just that the inappropriately greedy are getting bolder and wearing the rest of us down, or if the culture has just shifted and I need to get a grip and get on board.

As a friend of mine put it to me on another issue last week, “you’re just very committed to your own process,” which is a nice way of saying “you’re really inflexible.”

I think that (your friend’s comment) is bullshit. If I said “no I’m not willing to participate in your scheme to defraud the IRS” someone might equally well say “you’re just very committed to your own process”. Principles can of course be examined for their merit, but having principles that you stick to is certainly not per se wrong.

I don’t mind if something like United Way is sponsored by the company. I DO mind if it’s pushed, pushed, and pushed.

Years ago, when I was fairly new at my job (one of the Big 8 accounting firms) there was a partner whose dedication to The Cause was literally coercive. He couldn’t actually FORCE you to pledge but you would definitely get “attention”.

I was going to try to weasel out of it, but:

  1. we were closing up the small satellite office I had worked in
  2. some staff were being permitted to take home office furnishings, with permission
  3. I requested a specific bookshelf
  4. Partner said "she can take it if she pledges to UW.

My husband said “What, you’re giving in to a threat?” to which I replied “No, I’m giving in to a BRIBE!”.

As far as demanding cash to give the boss a gift or whatever, that’s a titch skeevy and may even run afoul of HR rules. I don’t mind if it’s something like “X is having a baby, we’ll give her a gift card, here let’s pass this envelope around and put in whatever you like”.

Do you find the whole concept of giving money to charity, as gifts, etc. inappropriate, or just the asking? If the latter, how would you propose that people be informed when, where, and how it would be appropriate to give?

I’m also wondering whether your attitude has anything to do with “Ask Culture vs. Guess Culture.”

So, some employees of the university are asked to contribute to annual gifts that go to other employees of the university? I don’t like it.

I mean, I get the idea that’s it always smart to be extra nice to the Office Manager or the head of Administrative staff, but to hold out the hat so the whole office can buy them a gift card every year is just off. Sure, buy things for the new baby, or collect for a retirement gift, but an annual appeal?

I was a Federal employee (including my time in the military) for 37 years. I hated CFC time of year, moreso under certain bosses who wanted 100% participation. (Some would go so far as to donate $1 in the name of anyone who didn’t choose to contribute.) I finally grew a spine and refused to play. I prefer to choose where my money goes myself, and I don’t want some massive organization taking a cut. Even in retirement, I get emails about CFC, but they’re easier to ignore.

Somewhat related, I hate having grocery clerks ask me if I want to “round up” as a donation to whatever cause. My go-to response is “Not today.”

I think wide appeals to raise money for a charitable cause are fine, but it’s completely inappropriate to do it in a way that implicitly shames someone who does not want to give to this cause or in this manner. I research my charitable giving carefully, and I resent the fact that some stores explicitly ask me to “round up” my credit card charge for charity, with the implication that I’m being publicly shamed as mean to anyone within earshot if I don’t.

This is completely inappropriate. No institution should every be requesting that staff give to other staff out of their own pocket, nor should a superior ever ask someone below them to do this.

Completely agree.

I’ve always been skeptical about the whole idea of someone “running a marathon for charity” or some such thing, when that means getting a bunch of friends and colleagues to “sponsor” you - so other people all donate money, while you go out and spend time getting yourself in shape and get all this kudos for doing something that doesn’t directly benefit anyone except yourself? Spend that time in a less glamorous manner volunteering for the charity you want to promote. Ask donors to contribute to the charity because it’s a good cause, not because you’re running 10 miles a day.

Charity in general:

I’m torn. I dislike the extreme version, where charities rise to haphazardly fill the gap left by underfunded government. Personally, I give time but no money to charities, but that’s based on my personal circumstances. I am glad that charities exist, and more power to others if they want to give.

But I guess that’s part of it. The whole office is pulling together for Worthy Group X. I’ve already committed to Worthy Group Y, though, which I don’t broadcast, so I worry that people think I’m cheap / stingy / whatever, or else forced to protest too much.

As for ask vs guess, that’s a good question. Culturally, I’m much more ask than guess (this is a recurring theme in my marriage) but I think, looking at my family, money is a specific exception: money is a guess SUBJECT. (Why yes, my family uses difficult-to-refuse gifts with strings attached as tools of manipulation, why do you ask?) One doesn’t ask for money. Money sporadically appears, with variable emotional and logistical consequences.

Anyway, thank you for that: that might explain why the issue pushes such buttons for me, but doesn’t seem to bother other people so much. I will have to think about this one for a while.

One of my best impromptu lines was while rushing out of a convenience store… “Sir, wait, don’t you want to donate five dollars to breast cancer?”
“Hell, no, I HATE breast cancer!”

Completely agree on this part. Faculty should not be urging any kind of activism on students, whether it involves monetary contributions or not. Faculty should be supportive of student activism involvement, just as they should be of other student extracurricular activities, but should not be pushing it on students.

Here I think you’re just somewhat behind the times. The “standard-ish” tip for restaurant service has been in the 20% range for a good many years now, and that’s even before the COVID crisis raised the stakes for so many customer-facing service jobs.

The generic response to undesired charity appeals is something like “I really appreciate your efforts for this cause, but my charity budget is something I think about and allocate in advance. If you’d like to give me some literature about your cause I’ll be happy to consider it in my future charitable donation planning.”

Yup. This sort of activity is a high-overhead form of fundraising that exploits personal social connections for its effectiveness. Many people who wouldn’t be interested in donating to some organization feel a bit of personal obligation or pressure to help their friend Bob or Alice achieve this athletic goal.

I think such a hybrid of individual sports achievement and charitable fundraising is unsatisfactory from both perspectives. ISTM that people should pay for their own recreational activities rather than soliciting for them in the guise of charitable donations. And I think that soliciting for charitable donations from others should be kept as cost-effective as possible, rather than wasting large amounts of the donated funds on a recreational event for participants that doesn’t directly advance the charity’s mission at all.

My more diplomatic way of putting this in response to requests is “Hey that’s great of you to do this, but I’m afraid that these charity recreational events like marathons and bike rides are too high-overhead for my donation budget. If you’ll point me towards a more cost-effective fundraising effort for this cause, I’ll be happy to look into that for a contribution.”

And if I find a good Charity Navigator-approved fundraising initiative for that cause, I often will make a donation to it in the name of the person who asked me. That way if they really cared about supporting the cause, they’ll be happy, and deservedly so. And if they were really just looking for handouts to meet their pledge threshold so they could have the fun of a recreational athletic event, that’s their problem.

Never gift up. It is inappropriate to give your boss, manager, department head, whatever, a present. And yes, fundraising at work is wrong, unless then head honcho donates 10% of his/her $7 million dollar a year salary.

Personally, I’d separate out fundraising for a gift and donating for a cause. The latter I think is acceptable in general, though you also have to accept people saying “No, I’ve already contributed to something else.” The former should be a discussion that you all have before setting something up–e.g. like how the Colibri fund has been set up.

There’s nothing wrong with collecting for gifts if it’s done right. My mom, when she had to quit her job, got people donating to help her, and it was the sweetest thing ever. Would it be enough for the loss of income? Of course not. But it showed a level of caring beyond the card.

Every time United Way comes up, I’m reminded of one of the best SDMB threads of all time:

Ugh, every year I dread the United Way drive at the office. I don’t know if the company liason gets some sort of kickback or kudos or what, but they are invasive and relentless. Mandatory staff meetings about how important it is to donate and explanations where the money is spent, complete with sad stories and heartbreaking photos followed by the hard sell-- if we get 100 % participation in the office the boss will let us wear jeans on Friday. If everyone gives at least $20 the boss will buy everyone lunch. If we break last year’s record everyone gets an extra vacation day.

“Joanie is the only one who hasn’t donated. Sorry, team, you can’t wear jeans on Friday because Joanie won’t participate. Maybe you can talk her into it so the whole team doesn’t suffer.”

“You were so close, but Ricky only gave $5, so we won’t be providing lunch tomorrow. Does anyone want to throw in another couple bucks in Ricky’s name so that you can have that pizza party after all?”

“We only need $200 more dollars to beat last year’s total. Sam and Dean, you can afford another $50 bucks each, just skip the Starbucks for a few days. Shelley, last year you gave $100, why only $40 this year? Don’t let the team down! Don’t you want us all to get an extra vacation day?”

They blatantly call people out by name and dollar amount in public and peer pressure them into giving, and then giving more. I hate it.

About 15 years ago, the company put in a policy that anyone at Director or above level could not fundraise at work at all, and that no one could accept contributions from anyone downstream from them on the org chart.

This was a direct result of a Vice President really abusing her position to fundraise constantly for her kids and everyone in her department feeling that they couldn’t refuse without consequences.

You are allowed to put a single line in your email signature linking to a fundraising page, but not allowed to talk, email or chat about it. And the fundraising has to be for causes specifically related to our company “values”. So no fundraising for your kid’s crew team’s trip to compete in England. Yes to a bike ride to benefit a food bank or cancer research.

I’ve also been skeptical about all these “donate and I’ll do this unrelated thing.”

But then someone explained: It’s not about the money the organization gets that way. - that’s peanuts It’s the fact that these events are shown on the news and then the politicians looking to exploit a popular cause can open the government coffers.

Over the last ten years people have given tens of thousands of dollars to food banks and food pantries because they are amused by the idea of me hauling my fat ass a few hundred miles in a month on a bicycle. I can’t see the downside, sorry it offends your sense of propriety somehow. It’s fun, it’s effective. It keeps me connected with distant friends and families better than sharing pictures on Facebook.

If I was a marathoner and I was trying to raise money by running a 5k, I wouldn’t be nearly as effective. But because my lifetime max daily distance is 50 miles, and I’m known as a baker not a biker, people really get into it.

I do all my fundraising by one email to prior contributors, two Facebook posts and a line in my work email signature for six weeks. Conversely I support a few events by my friends and coworkers as well, things they are passionate about.

Our office group also raises tens of thousands by getting hundreds of us (including some families) to do a 5k walk to raise money for a hospital. It is by far the most enjoyable event we have. It costs the company nothing. Other “team building” events are expensive and seem forced. The overwhelming majority of the money raised comes from the participants own pockets. Could everyone just write a $50 check and skip the walk, sure they could. Would they, of course not. They’re shelling out $50 a person for a social event.

Can this become forced and tedious, sure. Doesn’t have to be. I just ignore 90%+ of the appeals I get. No one has ever said they were offended by it. Well, one person did. Supporting a trip by the sailing team of a private ($60k a year) high school was not high enough on my list of philanthropic priorities. A relatively casual acquaintance kept pestering me until I told her that. She said I support your bike ride. I said I thought you were supporting the Food Bank. If you aren’t, please don’t contribute.