Letter: Donation jar a sweet deal for business

Posted 3/14/16

To the editor:

I felt a serious need to write this letter to the public.

I was recently in a local business and happened to notice a canister on the counter for charitable donations for a local …

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Letter: Donation jar a sweet deal for business

Posted

To the editor:

I felt a serious need to write this letter to the public.

I was recently in a local business and happened to notice a canister on the counter for charitable donations for a local organization. The canister was pretty full from the obvious generous patrons of the business. While waiting, I casually mentioned to an employee that a call should be made to the organization to come and empty the canister. She explained to me that the business owner empties it when it gets full and then about once a month writes a check to the organization.

Pondering this statement for a moment, I thought to myself, well, the business owner can’t possibly include everyone’s name that made a donation into that canister when they write the check. And they certainly won’t include any names except their own when they include that donation in their tax return either. Once again I thought to myself, huh, pretty unethical, wouldn’t you say?

The employee not knowing what I was thinking then said to me, we as employees also make donations to that organization and another one through our paychecks. Now as I got a little hot under the collar, I took a deep breath and asked her what she meant. She told me that for instance, she makes a $2 a week donation to this particular organization and a $3 donation to another one. And in her words, she said, “it’s easy because it comes right out of my paycheck.” Before I could speak, good thing, she then said, “It’s great because the owner gives this organization gift cards to come here.”

Because this is a newspaper I can’t tell you the words that were running through my head at this point in time. So let’s break this down, we have a business that is taking donations from their clientele and writing a check with the business name on it and making a ”donation” to an organization, taking credit for the donation I’m sure and most likely writing that donation off on their tax return. Then we have the same business using money that its employees have donated, money that the employee worked hard for, and buying giving gift cards with that employee money to give to an organization to come and use in their business and once again, writing that donation off on their taxes and in the same light, making themselves look like a true community partner. Wow!

Now go ahead and hang me in town square if I am wrong here, but this sounds like a gaping tax loophole and a business that is so unethical that they should be downright ashamed of themselves. And after asking around, this type of practice is socially acceptable because many businesses do this now. Are you kidding me?

Do yourself and your charitable donations a favor. When you want to make a donation, give it directly to the organization. I am all for helping out a youth basketball team or a cheerleading squad that wants to go to Florida for a competition but moving forward, I will always make sure that the donation I give is benefitting the organization or group that I am donating to and not the unethical charitable reputation of some wanna be business owner trying to put another feather in their cap.

Mark Clements

Westport

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Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.