molly.com
Wednesday 9 February 2005
marqui: charity begins at home
CHARITY BEGINS AT home, so it is said, and while this month wraps up my last as a paid-to-blog blogger for Marqui, a few words about charitable acts are in order.
A recent white paper from Marqui describes some of their clients. Among them are a number of charitable organizations, including Shriners of North America and the David Suzuki Foundation, which Marqui uses as a client case study.
We are already aware that web sites can really help donation campaigns. BlogAid, started by U.K. web designer Andy Budd, has closed pledging now, but has tracked 225 bloggers who have pledged upwards of $8,500.00 from their sites to the Asian Tsunami Relief effort. I contributed $250.00 from my last month check from Marqui (check total: $600.00) to the American Jewish World Service’s Tsunami Relief and Reconstruction Fund. It’s a pleasure to be able to spread the love around.
Something we don’t talk too much about, however, is how the inclusion of charitable activities on a corporate and/or organizational web site can be helpful to promote the positive nature of that organization. I first saw this years ago on the 7-up web site, where they had organized summer activities for underprivileged youth. I occasionally run across some sites that do this sort of thing really well. One of my favorite women’s clothing shops is J. Jill, whose Compassion Fund is an excellent example of the kind of thing web sites can do to raise their karma score. It’s nice to see Marqui taking this tack, too.
I’ve always believed the Web offers many opportunities to raise up the human spirit and condition of living for people worldwide. More of this sort of thing is needed, and I commend my colleagues and fellow bloggers for putting their money and resources where our oft perceived self-indulgent mouths are.
Filed under: blog slut, blogging
Posted by: Molly | 08:57 | Comments (6)
There’s more to help than just giving money. Giving money is good if you make sure the money goes where it should be and not simply send a check because “it feels great”. Your money might go to help reconstruct tourist attraction while local people still drink fealthy water… Giving money is not generosity…
cdast