Microsoft Give campaign gives $60M. But WHY???

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Everyone has heard of the Microsoft Give Campaign and the last info I heard for our October Giving Campaign said we as a firm have raised just over $60M with 66% of our employees participating - about $8M increase over employee giving at this time last year! Yes I am glad to be part of that.

But Why do companies Give in the first place? And a Feed from NYT quoted a PWC survey of CEOs on what benefits they saw for doing this (See Right).

Seriously - I think PWC has got it all wrong - If the real reason for giving is to attract and retain key employees - that is just wrong. How about the following two reasons:

* Satisfaction: Makes my team, family, organization smile and feel satisfied and sleep better at night

* Duty/Karma: We make a lot and we give a lot. It is the right thing to do

Ofcourse Milton Friedman who wrote " The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits " in 1970 and said “there is one and only one social responsibility of business—to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.” would disagree with me (rather - the other way around).

But hey - I dont have a Nobel Prize.

He Does.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    November 17, 2005
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    November 18, 2005
    Interesting point about operating margin from charity operations to be 90% being a benchmark for the basic-success of a charitable foundation. Almost forces a cashflow-analysis for each campaign from the org - and showcasing that to the giver to give more!