Happy Thanksgiving: Charity shrinking
by William Neikirk
Happy holidays, folks, and here’s some news. Citing the economic crisis, corporate America is cutting back on its charitable giving because of the economic crisis.
The Wall Street Journal told us so on Tuesday. The publication is superior in reflecting board-room sentiment across America. But valuable inferences can be gathered from this story. And they are rather disturbing.
One is the suspicion that among corporate executives charity is viewed as something you only do it good times. You put on a big bash to help a cause and get some good PR from it, a payoff in a way, a cheap payoff at that, a payoff lacking in sincerity.
It’s odd that business should cut back charity in time when it is needed more greatly, putting more pressure on hard-pressed social groups to pick up the slack. I guess they think that George H.W. Bush’s “Thousand Points of Light” will suddenly re-emerge and put up the millions they are refusing to give.
