This is a long one, sorry!!
TL:DR; the company I work for is claiming to donate a bunch of money to charities, but I don't trust them and am trying to figure out how to get receipts/hold them accountable.
The tech company I work for has decided to “give back” this year by donating a lot of money. Basically, they claim they're taking the budget for “holiday gifts and our kick-off packages [a yearly gift box with company swag]” and donating it to charity. They had all of the C suite people pick a charity, give a little speech about it, and then we employees picked a charity and they will “donate in our name”. They do not specify how much each donation will be, and they don't specify any type of deadline for choosing a charity or timeline of when the donations will take place.
I love this idea. I hate the swag, it's all junk that I end up throwing away, and I would like to see company money go to good use. This company has a big focus on charitable giving and volunteering; we use an app that's meant to encourage employees to donate [our own] money and time, and we have 3 days a year of paid volunteer days. So, this isn't particularly out of character for the company.
HOWEVER, I'm suspicious of this particular initiative because:
a. the employee selection was anonymous, so they can't possibly be making the donations “in my name”. I get that this is a small discrepancy but the lie gave me pause. [note: I am autistic so if this is an acceptable lie or a figure of speech that I'm missing, pls let me know and I'll disregard it]
b. using the form (A single dropdown to select a charity) I was able to choose multiple charities for my “donation”. If they were actually honoring this, wouldn't they make sure each employee can only select one charity? What will they do if multiple people select multiple charities and the math doesn't add up? Again, they don't specify how much each donation is, which is suspicious to me.
c. There's been a lot of talk of financial cutbacks (hiring freezes, holds on new technology, etc) so it's just odd to me that they'd choose this time to be generous unless they're not actually donating (or donating much less than they're letting on). I'm just a lowly IC so I have no idea how the big money stuff works but this also made me suspicious.
d. general distrust of any company!
so, my question is: is there a way I can confirm they're actually donating to these charities, or if this is all for show? I am down to do some sleuthing and check records but from what I'm seeing online it depends on the charity (they include habitat for humanity, save the children, and some other smaller orgs). Any insight or advice would be appreciated!! thanks for reading to the end here is a little cake for you :~)