Here it is fairly normal in the workplace to have ‘Casual Fridays’ where staff are allowed to wear casual clothes and are asked to make a contribution (gold coin) to a charity for the privilege.
Not sure how common this is around the world … but my odd situation is …
I’ve started working as a contractor for a charity and the above is in place … and I’ve duly contributed to the charity box each Friday. I assumed since I worked for a charity and that they were collecting using one of the branded collection boxes that my donation was going to the charity. I’ve just found out that in actual fact the money is going towards the staff Christmas party. I have to admit I feel fairly ripped off.
I wont be attending the Christmas party - contract will be over, I have worked in many places where you pay for your attendance at a Christmas party (as long as it isn’t compulsory I have no problems with that) and funding someone else’s drinks at Christmas as “charity” just seems wrong to me.
I don’t want to make a fuss … but I’d rather my money really went to the charity itself!
I totally understand your position and agree with you. I’d be miffed to say the least. Without making too much fuss about it - I’d make my donation to the charity and not feed the party box. I assume that your contribution to the box is private and anonymous? I assume also that no one is aware whether you “pay” for the privilege to wear casual clothes? If I’m right in my assumptions, then I’d just count how many weeks you’ve worn casual and cut a cheque directly to the charity.
Charity donations in my opinion are as personal and private as who you vote for. In my organization we officially support a charity that I don’t entirely endorse. It’s one of the charities that gathers donations centrally and doles that money out to other charities. There is an overhead cost paid back of course.
Every year I get a donation form by inter-office mail, with my name, employee number and suggested regular donation straight from my pay cheque. Well apart from not “liking” the sanctioned charity, I donate regularly to a particular charity for my own reasons. So I rip up the form into teeny little pieces and throw it away.
Collecting for a charity, using a branded charity collection receptacle and then using the gathered funds for non-charity purpose? I wonder does EVERYONE who has placed money in that container knows about the funding of the Christmas party? It smacks of fraud, IMHO.
Oh, I see what you’re saying – you’ve gone to work in the offices of A charity, not that you work FOR a charity in another company’s office. So they’re using their own drop-boxes to collect funds for the Crimbo party. So, I assume, all the employees DO know what the money is being used for; you’re the outsider. Got it.
Ask them to transfer the money you gave them to the real charity you thought it was going to. Their box is misleading you into thinking it was going for the charity not their party. It’s very bad situation for them using their donation collection boxes for something other than what it says it’s for. They haven’t apparently thought of the legal problems this could cause them.
I’d definitely do this. Just say to someone, 'Oh, I’m so sorry, I thought the money in this box was going to the charity, not to the Christmas party. I’ve put about $xx in there. Could you please remove that and I’ll write a cheque to the charity?"
We have dress-down Fridays at my workplace - I don’t much like it - because a) there isn’t a strict dress code there anyway - people who want to dress casually do so regardless of the occasion and b) I personally can’t stand feeling under-dressed at work. I’m happy enough to contribute to charitable causes though.
What the OP is describing sounds a bit weird - on the one hand, it’s great that the charity isn’t diverting any of its income to fund the staff Christmas party, but on the other hand, it seems almost fraudulent to be collecting this in one of their standard donation receptacles, even if it only ever happens internally to the office - it just seems like the wrong way to handle it.
Everyone else definitely knows where the money is going … it was just me being new that didn’t know. I think they’re just using the collection tin because it is handy!
It’s odd … because if the charity paid for a Christmas function for the staff I wouldn’t think that was a bad thing … yet I don’t want to contribute personally to their function?!
If the office is going to have a Christmas party (and many offices do), it needs to get paid for. If it is a charity you are working for, then the cost of the party has to come either from something like this - or they take it out of donations anyway.
Look at it as your part of the money shuffle…instead of donating money to the charity that they use to give their employees (and, if they are like most charities, poorly paid employees) a Christmas party, you are helping send the donations where they belong.
I wouldn’t worry about it. I think its a good thing that the charity in question is using their casual Fridays to pay for their party. There is always a little waste in even the best charity.