Sunday reads. Think globally. Give locally.

Retired teacher and blogger John Dillon has a great post on the impact of corporate giving during the holidays and the rest of the year.

Here’s a partial list of the 24 corporate Samaritans, and I’ll just highlight the companies with membership in the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago:  Northern Trust, Illinois Tool Works, AT&T, UPS, Deloitte, Exelon, Bank of America, Ernst & Young, Illinois Blue Cross and Blue Shield, KPMG, PWC, William Blair, Wells Fargo, GE, Nicor, Allstate, Kelloggs, Sargent and Lundy, HSBC, Harris Associates, Pepsico, Aon, Walgreens, and US Bank.  They all appreciate the spirit of giving on the mammoth scale to national and international charities because beyond the good citizen-type appearance…well, it pays back.  Helping people is profitable (except when they desire to bargain collectively).  Go to a movie this holiday season, and you’ll see CEO Gregory Marcus pushing United Way as well as popcorn.  

Along with being an advocate and activist for pension justice John volunteers a lot of his time at a local animal shelter.  So he sees first hand the impact of corporate giving.

 Corporate will be in Idaho, Minneapolis, California, or somewhere else usually far away.  And corporate, even in a closer place like Chicago, usually has a program of giving on a national not local scale.  It’s part of the boardroom budgeting process; FY15 is already in the hopper.  And, honestly, the last target (pun intended) for their obligatory corporate giving would be a small, local shelter.  You see, giving on a national or international scale provides advertising, which is of value to corporations – it is revenue generating.  Even a thank you from a charity on a corporate level (like United Way) can assure a full page of company icons and solicitous appreciation in a newspaper like our Chicago Tribune. In addition, in the lower corner it reads “With thanks to our media partner Chicago Tribune.” See, more feel-good advertising.

I have always had a problem with these corporate and umbrella charities like United Way.

Around this time of the year, Anne and I sit down and write checks to small, community-based groups – to those who are on-the-ground, like Partners in Health.

An easy way to do this is through Network for Good. You do a search for the group and pay by Pay Pal or credit card with a click on the button.

You can even choose to pay the credit card fee so that the organization gets the full amount. Of course, American Express gets their share too. But what the hell.

Similarly, there is the dilemma with our union’s political fund.

I understand the political power that pooling our financial resources give. But does the IEA use that power well? And what do I do when they use my dollars to fund the campaigns of politicians who voted against marriage equality or a woman’s right to choose. Or even, as it turns out, for Senate Bill 1 that cut our pension benefits.

When I was President of our IEA local I could attend endorsement sessions and vote to endorse with weighted votes, depending on how many IPACE (the IEA’s political action fund) donors we had in our local.

But as a retiree, we only get one vote for our chapter no matter how many IPACE donors we have. I understand that retirees should not be voting on issues that are directly and only impacting active teachers. But political endorsements impact us all. It’s another way in which retired members of IEA are treated as second class members in areas where it isn’t appropriate.

Recently our family held a meet-and-greet for Will Guzzardi who is running against incumbent Toni Berrios for the 39th Illinois House seat. Guzzardi is an independent progressive Democrat. Berrios is bought and paid for by the Chicago Democratic Machine.

We raised a modest  amount of money for Guzzardi.

And it’s not even tax deductible.