I very seldom wish I had a Facebook account – no, check that, I've never wished I had a Facebook account. And the recent announcement by Target Canada urging Canadians to use their Facebook page to make charitable donations isn't enough to change my mind.
But if you happen to be a Facebook client, you may wish to spend a little time to spend a little piece of Target's $1 million which they will donate according to choices you make from a list of selected charities on their page, or wall or whatever they call it in Facebook.
Apparently, Target's department of external relations spent months researching the right mix of partner charities to receive this million bucks.
I surmise the charities had to be national in scope, but with enough local chapters that customers can designate donations to a place close to where they live. They also needed to cover areas with a broad level of public acceptance, but unique enough that the Target brand will stand out as a supporter. (For instance, an effort like Run for the Cure already has a great deal of national corporate backing.)
When you think about it, these choices aren't as easy as it sounds. And if you're investing in goodwill prior to perhaps 135 store openings in cities across Canada, a million dollars is a lot less than it sounds. So you've got to target your choices.
At any rate, after much deliberation and the consumption of sandwiches at meetings, Target aimed at the arts, education and literacy, and programs that benefit people on low incomes. For Target, I'll allow these are good choices, but I wouldn't be impressed (or get a Facebook account) until they upped the ante to $5 million at least.
ArtsSmarts, ArtStarts, First Book Canada, Pathways to Education, Food Banks Canada and a number of YMCAs made the list, and starting Tuesday, you can designate $100 a day to a local chapter of one of these on as many days as you wish, until Dec. 9 (or until the money runs out, which would be my bet).
You'll notice that not many of these have a chapter in Red Deer, although Target will open a store here. But a benefit to any of the charities on their list is a benefit to us, in the big picture.
However, if you want to donate money that you'll never miss, in ways that could have real local impact, there are other options.
Load your pocket with a bit of the small change you keep in a dish on your bedside table, when you go out to shop for groceries. Red Deer Co-op, for instance, has change collection jars at their checkouts, listing a number of valuable local charities as beneficiaries. Other stores will have theirs as well.
Consider: there must be 50,000 grocery purchases made every day in Red Deer. If we could achieve just a nickel average donation for each of these, that comes to about $75,000 per month going to local charities, without the need for a costly fundraising campaign or an army of volunteers to make it work.
Do you think that level of money might make a difference in the quality of life for a lot of people in our city? Just ask the charities involved.
And here's this: nobody would miss having the money.
The Salvation Army will soon be starting their annual Christmas Kettle campaign. Even if you're the kind of shopper who uses a plastic card for everything, keep some change in your pockets. Promise yourself that you will not pass a volunteer with a kettle, without adding even a little to it.
Everyone loves a generous corporate donor, but collectively, many people doing incredibly small acts of caring is how mountains get moved.
Small change, big impact. Just pick the right target.
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