The Ethical Dilemma of Accepting Tainted Donations

Cause marketers and others have made much of the recent cause marketing campaign by KFC benefiting Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

My old pal Joe Waters at the Boston Medical Center and his many commenters have stated very well the ethical dilemma that charities can face in forging cause marketing relationships.

But, of course, the charititable fundraising business as a whole is fraught with ethical challenges.

Here’s a particularly challenging and recent one from the UK that has come to my attention.

Reginald Forester-Smith was a ‘photographer to the stars’ and royalty in the United Kingdom the 1970s.

In 1999 he was tried, convicted and jailed for repeatedly raping his young daughter over an 18-year-period. He spent eight years in prison. At least two other girls came forward to say that Forester-Smith had sexually abused them as well. His daughter, now aged 42, published a book about her experience in 2002.

Forester-Smith served his time and died last July at the age of 77. His wife, Sheena, died in 2001. Forester-Smith’s estate bequeathed more than £1m to three charities, including £312,291 each to the Macmillan Nurses Cancer Association and Cancer Research UK.

Now news has come out that Forester-Smith had also bequeathed £400,000 to Girlguiding Scotland, an analogue in the United States to the Girls Scouts.

So if you’re Girlguiding Scotland, do you take the money?

Here’s a few things to keep in mind.

Forester-Smith served his time.
Forester-Smith is dead.
Forester-Smith left nothing for his daughter.
Neither the Macmillan Nurses Cancer Association and Cancer Research UK have announced yet whether they will accept the gift, so Girlguiding doesn’t have any cover from them.
The estate made the gift to the Girlguiding Scotland in memory of his wife, who was an active supporter of the Girl Guides and Brownies.
Girlguiding Scotland is particularly well-placed to use the money to fight child abuse in all its odious forms.

All that said, you can appreciate why Girlguiding is taking its time thinking about this bequest.

Isn't accepting it tantamount to a whitewash of Forester-Smith's horrible crimes?
Forester-Smith's money is all but blood money.
His daughter has so far remained silent, but a family friend has said that it would be reprehensible for Girlguides to accept it.

I’d love to get your opinion. Should Girlguiding Scotland accept the donation or not?

Chili’s and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

I was in Chili’s today and I ordered their “Triple-Dipper,” a three appetizer combo. While I waited for the food, I noticed another kind of combo. Chili’s is doing a full-featured cause-related marketing campaign for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. There was a four-sided laminated table tent outlining the campaign on the table. When the waitress brought the drinks she slapped down Chili’s trademark square paper beverage coasters and on them was a call to action for an element of the campaign called ‘Create-A-Pepper,’ a kind of paper icon campaign. The wait staff was all attired in black shirts co-branded with Chili’s and St. Jude. The Create-A-Pepper paper icon could be found in a stack behind the hostess area. The Peppers are outlines of Chili’s iconic logo meant to be colored. I paid $1 for mine, but they would have taken $5, $10, or more. The crayons, too, were co-branded with the ‘Create-A-Pepper’ and St. Jude’s logos. There’s also creatapepper.com, a microsite, but again wi...

Part 2: How Chili's Used Cause-Related Marketing to Raise $8.2 million for St. Jude

[Bloggers Note: In this second half of this post I discuss the nuts and bolts of how Chili's motivates support from its employees and managers and how St. Jude 'activates' support from Chili's. Read the first half here.] How does St. Jude motivate support from Chili’s front line employees and management alike? They call it ‘activation’ and they do so by the following: They share stories of St. Jude patients who were sick and got better thanks to the services they received at the hospital. Two stories in particular are personal for Chili’s staff. A Chili’s bartender in El Dorado Hills, California named Jeff Eagles has a younger brother who was treated at St. Jude. In both 2005 and 2006 Eagles was the campaign’s biggest individual fundraiser. John Griffin, a manager at the Chili’s in Conway, Arkansas had an infant daughter who was treated for retinoblastoma at St. Jude. They drew on the support Doug Brooks… the president and CEO of Brinker International, Chili’s parent co...

Cause-Related Marketing with Customer Receipts

Walgreens and JDRF Right now at Walgreens…the giant pharmacy and retail store chain with more than 5,800 stores in the United States and Puerto Rico… they’re selling $1 paper icons for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). This is an annual campaign and I bought one to gauge how it’s changed over the years. (Short list… they don’t do the shoe as a die cut anymore; the paper icon is now an 8¾ x 4¼ rectangle. Another interesting change; one side is now in Spanish). The icon has a bar code and Jacob, the clerk, scanned it and handed me a receipt as we finished the transaction. At the bottom was an 800-number keyed to a customer satisfaction survey. Dial the number, answer some questions and you’re entered into a drawing for $10,000 between now and the end of September 2007. I don’t know what their response rate is, but the $10,000 amount suggests that it’s pretty low. Taco Bell’s survey gives out $1,000 per week. At a regional seafood restaurant they give me a code that garner...

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