It’s been taught to generations that “it is more blessed to give than to receive.” But how blessed is it when you give in order to receive?

In time for the holidays, Starbucks launched its "Red" campaign to raise money to fight AIDS in Africa. A portion of all sales are contributed to the Global Fund to Help Fight AIDS in Africa. (Mark Von Holden/Getty Images)

This time of year, charity is everywhere: Starbucks is helping to fight AIDS in Africa. Macy’s is giving to the Make A Wish Foundation. And Toys “R” Us is giving to Toys For Tots. Clearly, ’tis the season for giving — but it’s also clear that there is many a reason for giving.

“Companies engaged in social issues have gained tremendous benefits,” says Carol Cone, the chairwoman and founder of Cone Inc. who is considered by many to be the mother of cause marketing. “It’s absolutely magic.”

These days, she says, companies have to be seen as giving in order to succeed.

Read on: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121718372&ft=1&f=1001

By Nicholas D. Kristof | Outside Online | December 2009

The author reporting in the Democratic Republic of Congo (courtesy of Everett Collection)

In 2004, I visited the Darfur area three times, trying to bear witness to the slaughter of children and the burning of villages. I stepped over the desiccated carcasses of camels and goats to interview survivors still in hiding. I interviewed people who had seen men pulled off buses and killed because of their tribe and skin color, and I spoke to teenage girls who had been taunted with racial epithets against blacks while being gang-raped by the Sudanese-sponsored Arab militia, the janjaweed.

I was enraged by what I found and, as a New York Times columnist, wrote time and again about these atrocities on the op-ed page. Yet at first the public reaction seemed to be a collective shrug: Too bad, but isn’t that what Africa is always like? People slaughtering each other? Anyway, we have our own problems.








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