Sorry to let the cat out of the bag so soon, but I think the straight answer to this question is no, Amazon does not have an obligation to philanthropy. However, before I go any further let me get two things clear: yes, we do have Amazon employees who volunteer at Jolkona; no, I’m not one of them.

In case you were on the moon (with Jeff Bezos’s private aerospace company perhaps), the issue of Amazon’s apparent absence in the philanthropic life of its hometown (Seattle) featured in an article belonging to a wider four-part series by the Seattle Times questioning some of the company’s practices.

View from an Amazon office building, South Lake Union, Seattle. Photo credit: Flickr, Cliff Hung

First of all, I don’t really wish to comment on the other issues regarding Amazon’s ethics of business, mainly because capitalism doesn’t strike me as a particularly ethical system in the first place. It’s a paradoxical argument, in my view. And secondly, because we’re talking about philanthropy here, not business. Which is precisely my point.

The truth is, a company has legal obligations to its shareholders, employees, customers, and…. well that’s about it.

At the heart of philanthropy is not corporate business. At the heart of philanthropy is the individual promoting the well-being of man-kind. Businesses, though, are about people, and so one could argue that it would be beneficial for them to care about the well-being of the community and people they serve.

But as we’ve seen the foundation of almost every business is a visionary individual. Likewise, the foundation of almost every non-profit is not thanks to a corporation, but to a single person with a single mission. A case in point, of course, is our own CEO, Adnan Mahmud, who started Jolkona whilst simultaneously holding down a full time product manager position at Microsoft.

Microsoft, though, is a good example of a large corporate business that does encourage philanthropic participation from its employees, offering donation matching, volunteer matching, and pro-bono software to non-profits, among other company wide philanthropic initiatives. The question, then, becomes can businesses like Amazon become serious participants in encouraging individuals towards philanthropy and they themselves as a company promoting the well-being of others? Absolutely they can. And there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that they indeed should.

According to a study by Corporate Citizenship 85% of Americans have a more positive image of a product or a company when it supports a cause they care about. Whilst 79% of Americans say they would switch from one brand to another if the other brand is associated with a good cause. It’s hardly rocket science, but in a nutshell: a company is likely to make more money if they are seen to be connected to philanthropic causes. Tom’s shoes is an excellent example of this.

The gain for Amazon, then, in theory, should be greater profitability. But if philanthropy equates to profitability, then one might ask why has Amazon not done more for philanthropic initiatives in its own community. Clearly, though, they’ve assessed what is most profitable for them, and at the moment they seem to be saying corporate philanthropy is not the direction they want to go in. You can’t criticize them for that. Can we criticize them ethically, though? We can question them, yes. But I still don’t believe corporate businesses have obligations to philanthropy. Whether or not, though, Amazon will suffer an eventual consumerist backlash is yet to be determined.

The possibility remains that if Amazon becomes more philanthropic it could improve its own bottom line, which in turn would be a win win situation for shareholders and the community.

Does Amazon have a obligation to philanthropy? No. Might Amazon benefit from taking part in philanthropic activities? Very possibly, yes. Could Amazon have a big impact on the philanthropic community? Absolutely they could.  But again, I personally believe philanthropy is more about the individual, not corporate business. Non-profits need and value the help of corporate businesses, but we must rely on ourselves to better the world around us.

Don’t ask what Amazon can do for philanthropy. Ask what you yourself can do for philanthropy.

Be the change you want to see in the world here.

This post was written by Gabriel St. John.  He is a volunteer with Jolkona and contributes and manages the blog.  He has a Masters of Research degree in European Languages and Culture. He hails all the way from Cornwall, England, where he studied at the University of Exeter.

Motrin

We are thrilled to launch Good Deeds, our second matched giving campaign with  Waggener Edstrom Worldwide. From now until October 24th, Waggener Edstrom will match every donation you make to any project featured on Jolkona, dollar-for-dollar, up to $5,000.

How this campaign works:

1. Choose a project you’re passionate about from one of over 100 projects featured on Jolkona.
2. Give and double your impact, with 100% of your donation going towards the project you choose and Waggener Edstrom will match it!
3. Receive two proofs of impact – one proof for the donation you make and the second proof for the donation Waggener Edstrom matches.
4. Share the your Good Deed on Facebook, Twitter, and everywhere you hang out – online and offline!

It’s that easy!

And as part of the campaign, Waggener Edstrom will also make several $25 bonus spot donations to Jolkona on behalf of people who tweet about their gift using the #WEGoodDeeds hashtag, so don’t forget to tell your tweeps about your donation!

Why Good Deeds?

The philosophy that all giving matters is the spirit of Jolkona’s mission and the work we do every day. We recognize that you don’t have to be wealthy or have an unlimited amount of time to volunteer to make an impact; even small doses of passion turned to action make a difference and Waggener Edstrom believes in this as well. As they like to think about it, the impact is YOU.

To read more about why Waggener Edstrom is supporting this campaign, read this post on their blog, Good Deeds: The Impact is You.

Let’s give!

You can support the Good Deeds campaign, follow our progress as we work towards raising $10,000 with the match in 2 weeks, and our total impact on the campaign page, as well as on Facebook and Twitter (@Jolkona, @WE_Citizen, #WEGoodDeeds).

We would like to thank Waggener Edstrom for their partnership and continued support with this campaign. Together, we are proving that small donations matter and together, we are creating a ripple effect of change.

What ‘good deed’ have you made today?

I’d like to introduce you to Adlyn Adam Teoh, the founder of Hias Gourmet. Hias Gourmet is is a social enterprise focused on culinary travel and events in Beijing, China. They seek to share culture through cuisine and provide meaningful food experiences to their clients. Their goal is to build bridges between people over food. Think team building, but delicious and fun.

Hias Gourmet is a company with a conscious and makes regular donations through Jolkona. For example, for every multi-day tour in Sichuan, Hias Gourmet donates a solar stove to a family in China, a project in their own back yard. You can view Hias Gourmet’s social portfolio to see the impact they’ve made to date, here.

Most recently, Hias Gourmet pledged their philanthropic dollars to help launch the Give to Girls campaign. Their contribution helped create the $2,000 fund that women-owned businesses pledged to match and double the impact of the first $2,000 in donations made towards women empowerment projects on Jolkona.

Here is Adlyn’s story on what it means to support this campaign and how important it is to invest in women and girls through Jolkona:

Thank you so much, Adlyn, for being a part of the Give to Girls campaign!

We’re happy to share that the match fund helped jump start the Give to Girls campaign so much that we raised almost $6,000 on the first day that it launched, March 8th, including the match!

Give to Girls is history in the making

There are two things that are impressive about that number:

1. It shows how much you, our donors, believe in supporting projects that educate, empower, and provide health care for women and girls.
2. Through the support of our donors, campaign sponsors, and community at large, March 8th and this campaign will go down in Jolkona’s history as the single–highest day of fundraising to date. On behalf of everyone at Jolkona, thank you.

But March isn’t over yet…

At the time I hit “publish” on this post, we have raised just over $8,700 for these projects. Can we get that number to a nice, round $10,000 by the end of March?

Look at the impact to date on the campaign page – how many more girls can we educate in Nepal, China, India, and Afghanistan? How many newborns can we give a great start to life by providing their mothers with access to healthcare in India? How many girls can we help boost their self-esteem in the US?

How much of an impact can we make in the lives of the women of tomorrow by giving to girls today?

We have one week left of this campaign – will you help us blow our goal out of the water?

Recently I sat down with Josh Dirks, the founder of Social Creature Media and the sponsor of Jolkona’s Meet-up, to discuss the relationships between business, social media, and what motivates start-up companies like his to get involved with philanthropy. As leader of an organization dedicated to harnessing the power of social media and putting it to good use, Josh has many intriguing thoughts on the roles community and transparency can play in encouraging young people to give back. We live in a new era of accountability, with the ever-present 24-hour news cycle and most individuals in the world have at least some access to powerful tools of mass communication. There are of course many challenges in the era of information overload, but also great opportunities to use technology to bridge human needs.

Ready access to information has given tremendous power to individuals, and social media branding experts like Josh clearly understand that today’s youth know how to vote with their dollars. In the for-profit sector, this means that brands and businesses must become social and “owned” by their public: listening to, monitoring and engaging customers allows businesses to build a community of patrons that identifies with products or services. And much like the good old days when conventional wisdom spread through word of mouth, in the social media era, much of the most useful information out there is distributed by individuals who want to share their experiences, reviews, and opinions with those important to them. Read the rest of this entry »