While the majority of charities help the less fortunate and further humane causes, a select few charities are fooling naïve donors and secretly using their funds for profit. While these charities sometimes donate to the causes they champion, they don’t tell the public that they keep a large portion of the funds for themselves.
One such “charity” is TOMs shoe, a brand that caters mostly to women. The idea is simple: Buy a pair of $50 shoes and another pair will go to a child in need of shoes in an underprivileged community. TOMs are comfortable and fashionable, but the company is not as pious and generous as some people believe.
According to an advocacy group called Coalition of Immokalee Workers, TOMs is taking advantage of workers making the shoes since they are only paid 50 cents to make them; however, the company sells the shoes for $50, so what is the company doing with the leftover $49 the consumer paid?
Under the guise of charity, TOMs is abusing donors’ trust. Concerned citizens are being deceived by manipulative marketing ploys designed to only increase product popularity and solidify the company name. If the TOMs company is genuinely concerned with unfortunate children’s well-being, they should use some of their profit money for education, food or vaccines instead of keeping all of the money to themselves.
Some other charities created on the premise of helping children have even been investigated at the federal level for serious offenses related to misuse of funds and fraud. A charity known as Raising Malawi was founded by the pop singer Madonna to create schools to educate impoverished girls living in Malawi.
The organization was recently audited and red-flagged for misappropriation of funds.
Investigations by the FBI uncovered a shockingly selfish motive — the donated funds were used for enhancing the living standard for the already wealthy executives who were only interested in acquiring sport club memberships, fancy transportation and increased salaries.
These businesses and their artificial charity serve as a reminder that people should do research before giving money to causes they are passionate about.
