4 ms·

Realistically, corporate donations are almost entirely measured by the "gross value added to brand/reputation." Not "actual worth to society." A market based,

by urthor 4y ago

Realistically, corporate donations are almost entirely measured by the "gross value added to brand/reputation." Not "actual worth to society." A market based, consumer driven approach like Amazon Smile, is likely optimal. Consumers, on average, are very effective and logical choosers (on average). Amazon Smile was likely a highly effective program. Issue is, Amazon now wants to redirect its customer's dollars to improve its reputation.

thwayunion 4y ago
Riffing on this: if you thought about charity in the "maximize social utility function" way that SV types tend to talk, wouldn't you suspect that Amazon Smile would also be an actually a good way of allocating charitable dollars? Or at least better than a megacorp picking and choosing? Markets work, wisdom of the crowds, and so on. There's something very "early 21st century social trust crisis" about keeping the "capitalist utlitarianism" logos of neoliberalism while throwing out the "democratized decision making" ethos of neoliberalism.
dclowd9901 4y ago
Totally this. Our company had a diversity hiring initiative and I wanted to do some outreach in our area so I reached out about sponsoring an LGBTQ+ event. As a primary sponsor on the bill, my anticipation was that our goodwill gesture would go a good distance in the community and we should leave it at that, but HQ wanted a signup sheet with us trying to get people’s info for recruiting and numbers to publish for the HR team to show their money wasn’t just “thrown to the wind.” I got very cynical about doing events like that after that. It’s not really giving if you expect something in return. Like, I get it, it’s not just a slush fund, but maybe it sort of should be. Does every dollar spent have to have clear ROI? Where’s the charity?
- thwayunion 4y ago
  > Where’s the charity? Carefully recorded in tax filings.
- urthor 4y ago
  IMO the best thing you can do is reaching out to high school teachers teaching programming. A coworker had an interested high school student come in for the day/week a few times, and shadow them. For many kids whose parents have never heard of white collar work, it can be life changing to have a good impression.
  - dclowd9901 4y ago
    High school teachers teaching programming? Is that even a thing everywhere? Growing up where I did, it’s a laughable idea.

by urthor 4y ago

thwayunion 4y ago

Riffing on this: if you thought about charity in the "maximize social utility function" way that SV types tend to talk, wouldn't you suspect that Amazon Smile would also be an actually a good way of allocating charitable dollars? Or at least better than a megacorp picking and choosing? Markets work, wisdom of the crowds, and so on. There's something very "early 21st century social trust crisis" about keeping the "capitalist utlitarianism" logos of neoliberalism while throwing out the "democratized decision making" ethos of neoliberalism.

dclowd9901 4y ago

Totally this. Our company had a diversity hiring initiative and I wanted to do some outreach in our area so I reached out about sponsoring an LGBTQ+ event. As a primary sponsor on the bill, my anticipation was that our goodwill gesture would go a good distance in the community and we should leave it at that, but HQ wanted a signup sheet with us trying to get people’s info for recruiting and numbers to publish for the HR team to show their money wasn’t just “thrown to the wind.” I got very cynical about doing events like that after that. It’s not really giving if you expect something in return. Like, I get it, it’s not just a slush fund, but maybe it sort of should be. Does every dollar spent have to have clear ROI? Where’s the charity?

thwayunion 4y ago
> Where’s the charity? Carefully recorded in tax filings.
urthor 4y ago
IMO the best thing you can do is reaching out to high school teachers teaching programming. A coworker had an interested high school student come in for the day/week a few times, and shadow them. For many kids whose parents have never heard of white collar work, it can be life changing to have a good impression.
- dclowd9901 4y ago
  High school teachers teaching programming? Is that even a thing everywhere? Growing up where I did, it’s a laughable idea.