Worst fears about (RED) campaign realized

Just a sobering "watchdog" update on a topic we addressed earlier in the semester -- the economics of the "Red" campaign...

http://adage.com/article?article_id=115287

Key quote:

...you'd expect the money raised to be, well, big, right? Maybe $50 million, or even $100 million. Try again: The tally raised worldwide is $18 million. The disproportionate ratio between the marketing outlay and the money raised is drawing concern among nonprofit watchdogs, cause-marketing experts and even executives in the ad business

How to Evaluate Charities...

I expect this web site will be very informative for you, as it has been for me in making decisions about where to give charity $ where they will be spent wisely...

Charity Navigator
(registration req. to get the good stuff)

From wikipedia...

Charity Navigator is an independent, non-profit group that evaluates American charities. Their stated goal is "to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace by evaluating the financial health of America's largest charities…"

…with the mission of helping "donors make informed giving decisions and enabling well-run charities to demonstrate their commitment to proper stewardship" of donor dollars…Charity Navigator currently evaluates over 5,000 charities in U.S.A., in addition to hundreds of organizations with international operations.

The site also features opinion pieces by Charity Navigator experts, donation tips, and top-10 and bottom-10 lists which rank efficient and inefficient organizations in a number of categories.

The Materialist Generation?

See this article for some interesting findings from the latest CIRP survey of college freshmen. Do you think this describes Simpson students, or are we different than most? A key excerpt:

...nearly three-quarters of those surveyed in 2006 thought it was essential or very important to be "very well-off financially." That compares with 62.5 percent who said the same in 1980 and 42 percent in 1966, the first year the survey was done.

As shown above, what is striking is not just the raw numbers (see the full story), but how our generation's priorities seem to differ from the values of our parents and grandparents. Or did our parents "sell out" their idealism somewhere along the way? (This is a common charge levied by social scientists against the baby boomers.)

Thoughts on the (Red) Campaign...

The more I think about it, the more I'm skeptical of the whole (Red) Campaign. I realize it is mostly an "awareness" campaign, but still... Not familiar with it? You can read a bit more here. Here's the stuff, from the official web site:

(RED) was created by Bono and Bobby Shriver, Chairman of DATA to raise awareness and money for The Global Fund by teaming up with the world's most iconic brands to produce (PRODUCT)^RED branded products. A percentage of each (PRODUCT)^RED product sold is given to The Global Fund. The money helps women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa.

What's the meaning of the parentheses or brackets? Well, we call them "the embrace." Each company that becomes (RED) places its logo in this embrace and is then elevated to the power of red. Thus the name -- (PRODUCT)^RED.

You, the consumer, can take your purchase to the power of (RED) simply by upgrading your choice. Thus the proposition: (YOU)^RED. Be embraced, take your own fine self to the power of (RED). What better way to become a good-looking samaritan?!

Hmm... For some reason, that last paragraph makes me cringe, especially the whole "good-looking samaritan" thing.

Here's a crazy idea: INSTEAD of buying a $28 T-shirt or a $75 hoodie or a $175 cashmere sweater (yep...that's $175) from The Gap, one that you probably don't really need anyway, why not rescue (recycle) an old T-shirt, hoodie, or sweater from a thrift shop for $2, then give the rest directly to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS? Seems like a more efficient solution to me.

Am I being too snarky here? Too cynical? I'm curious to know what you think.

UPDATE 2009: the GAP is no longer selling a $175 cashmere sweater under the RED brand (maybe they figured out how ridiculous that sounded).