Halle T. (of Yoga Bear) sent in this example of corporate philanthropy.

Halle says,

Arimidex, a prescription drug for breast cancer has created a site called the “Celebration Chain”. According to their promotion, the “Celebration Chain is a way to honor special women in our lives who have overcome or are fighting breast cancer…”. Users create a virtual doll in honor of someone they know, then send (spam?) it to everyone they know.

I’m always interested in corporate-sponsored philanthropy and the ways in which companies use things like donating to breast cancer research to improve their image. On the one hand, does it really matter who provides the money as long as it goes to a good cause, even if the motivation behind it is PR or marketing? On the other…the corporate giving often requires a purchase, such as when you have to buy yogurt and send in the lids so the company will donate a small amount (though in this case you don’t have to buy anything–you just have to spend time on the drug company’s website making a virtual doll).

The other thing that concerns me is that these programs are usually not very transparent. Halle sums it up nicely:

For every doll created, Arimidex donates $1 to “a breast cancer charity”, up to $25,000. But no where on the site do they disclose which charity; and for all we know, they could consider their R&D team a charitable unit. Arimidex also fails to mention if they donate the revenue or proceeds from the program, i.e. do they take marketing and website development costs out of the amount donated?

For other examples of corporate philanthropy, look here, here, here, here, and here.

Thanks, Halle!