Profiting Under the Guise of Philanthropy

Profiting under the guise of Philanthropy (PUGP) is a phenomenon that I have made more notice of over the last year or so. There may be, or probably is, a scholarly term for this, but I haven't run across it yet. But, the more you look for it, the more you see it.

Just this morning I was watching CNBC and they were interviewing the CEO of Toys R Us, and that corporation is beginning a program to have customers bring in a list of items such as car seats, cribs, walkers, etc that may be unsafe, had been stored incorrectly, or maybe have been recalled, or not, and the person bringing in the items would be entitled to a discount on new purchases. On the surface it seems like a reasonable program. But, is it only a manifestation of PUGP? Toys R Us is a for profit venture and only looking to expand their sales, right?

Some other examples:

1) J. D. Rockefeller and Carnegie effectively taking over the AMA and its Board of Directors, and then moving on to changing the face of the American medical establishment by getting his members on the Boards at most medical schools. He contributed huge sums of cash to the AMA and the medical schools, but to what end? He had been smacked down for his oil monopoly and had to make a living somehow, poor guy. Huge investments in pharmaceutical companies could surely use a boost by encouraging the medical schools to teach allopathic phamaceutical based medicine instead of naturopthic medicine. And the is effectively what he accomplished, driving the naturopathic schools out and taking over the allopathic schools....using philanthropy to make the US medical establishment "better"...for profit.

2) Al Gore donating his share of the Nobel Prize...very Philanthropic indeed. The charity getting this largesse is one that he chairs...promoting Climate Change nee global warming. Following the trail of money back in time we know of Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth", an alarmist accounting of climate change meant to shock us into submission to grossly government actions. But how many are aware of Generation Investment Management, a company Gore cofounded that invests in businesses that would stand to profit with government policy implementation favoring such things as cap and trade:

GIM also owns a 10% stake in the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), CCX in turn owns half of European Climate Exchange. This gives Al Gore a financial bias towards promoting global warming control through the issuing of carbon credits. Link and Link

So, Al's philanthropy may be based in goodness, but it is most definitely self-serving as well.

3) My local Wildlife Management Association. We received a nice sized Federal grant to do some wildlife habitat restoration. Most of the work to be done consists of prescribed burning of overgrown and neglected areas and letting the native grasses become reestablished. To that end a company that specializes in conducting the burns was hired to perform the work. The members of the association that applied for the grant asked for $100 per acre for the work and its follow up over a five year time frame. The members "assisted" the fire crew in the burns. The fire crew only charged $20-30 per acres for their services. So, where do you think all the additional funds were channeled? Because they wrote the grant and assisted with the burns...their philanthropic moment netted them a tidy sum.

4) A General One...have you noticed any type of ad that indicates "buy our product and we will donate" language. They are quite common. You buy wares and do good for some named cause, but "they" profit.

There are many more out there, the more you are aware of PUGP.