What If

Monday, July 18, 2005

Today I was in Staples and was asked if I wanted to donate $1.95 to the Boys and Girls Club for school supplies.  This is a no-brainer for me, I always say yes to these types of check-out fund raising events.  This got me thinking about a couple of things.

1. What is the deal with $1.95?  Seems like an odd number and one where people would hesitate and say, “No Thank You.” I think a better approach, which I have seen, is to ask would they like to donate and have it be an option of $1, $5, and $10 dollars.  $1.00 is an easy yes I would think.

2. What if every store in the country did this?  Just think of how much money could be raised each year.  What if companies matched a percent of that donation, how many more people would donate?

3. What if banks took their ATM fees and donated 50% to charity?  Banks are making 2-3 BILLION a year on ATM fees.  1.5 Billion sure could help a lot of people, pay for a lot of teachers, feed the homeless, etc.

4. What if every company in the country asked you when you started working “Would like us to make a pre-tax donation to a charity each pay check and take it out automatically?” In June, total employment was 141.6 million people.  If everyone donated $1.00 a week / $52.00 a year—that would equal Seven billion three hundred sixty-three million two hundred thousand dollars a year.  We could probably cure a few diseases with that kind of money.  And because it is pre-taxed it would only cost you about 70 cents instead of $1.00.

Seems like some simple solutions to difficult problems. 

posted in: Personal