Wal-Mart Revises Charitable Donations for Optimal P.R. Impact

“The amount available in each state-level funding pool will depend on how many Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores that state has, McKenna said. She wasn’t sure how much that would be for Arkansas."------------------------------------Now, this IS intrguing. State level funding pool? I wonder if the number of stores per state is reflective of whether or not that partiular state has combined reporting for state taxes? Do the states without combined reporting,which closes the REIT and royalty tax (Geoffery Loophole) ,have more stores,or less stores? Either way,when tax loopholes are used by WalMart to avoid giving states their rightful amount of sales taxes,this new manner of charity contributions could be an inducemnet to keep states from going to combined tax reporting...and closing the far more lucrative loopholes.

I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!!  Not too long ago, people on this site, complained that Wal-Mart wasn’t giving enough to charity, now, Wal-Mart does and the responce is “Wal-Mart’s charitable donations are a cheap way to get some positive publicity for a company”!!

Then, ddrb, questions the method of dispersement, how typical!!  With this crowd, Wal-Mart can NEVER do anything right, no matter what they do!!

“America’s No. 1 corporate donor”

They give the most to charity, but, it’s not enough, right?

Years ago when I did some quick checking concerning Wal-Mart’s giving, I discovered something interesting. Most of their giving was to a fund that gave tons of money to Republicians. Why? Well, Republicians just love big business, and they love Wal-Mart.
Recently, I was in a Wal-Mart, and no it was not to go shopping. I stopped shopping there years ago. Anyway I saw their bulletin board which featured all their local contributions. I couldn’t believe HOW LITTLE they gave to the area. A few organizations received as little as $500.00. My thought was if I was that big of a corporation, I wouldn’t give so little and then HAVE THE NERVE TO BRAG ABOUT IT.
Wal-Mart, always cheap, always.

Blame the decline in local newspapers and local TV. If you can’t get the publicity in the town where you are making the donation, why do it?

The sign of a donation that is done for truly altruistic reasons is one that is given anonymously.

rdf:The decline in local newspapers and T.V. has worked to WalMart’s advantage in another way,also. There is less coverage of site fights,or crime in the parking lots, or violations of environmental issues germane to the areas in question. Buying local advertising was once one of the ploys used by WalMart to “sell” their stores to a community. This was again,more rhetoric,as Wal Mart rarely bought local print ads...they print their own circulars,even using WalMart employees in the ads to avoid paying for models.(BTW,they stopped doing that.)

““America’s No. 1 corporate donor”

They give the most to charity, but, it’s not enough, right?”

RDS in

So where is the number 1 when it comes to paying their workers Bob? All of a sudden the pot went dry?
Walmart is just one publicity game after another.
I am amazed how many press releases they do here just to try and get free advertising in the media. The fact is this game is only going to go on for so long. They will not keep fooling the people.

R E M E M B E R
J O N Q U I E R E
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

R E M E M B E R
J A C K S O N V I L L E
T E X A S
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

Alex,here is an interestring excert from the Nation,2005:-----Communities where Wal-Mart faced a particular battle over opening a new store--Inglewood, California, or New York City--enjoyed especially generous largesse. Like the flowers and other tokens of courtship from a suitor who later becomes a wife-beater, such gifts are often followed by demands for public subsidies and tax breaks. In this way Wal-Mart is repeating the strategy that has served it so well in Arkansas, where Wal-Mart and the Waltons’ charitable gifts are many and company critics are relatively few. Says Lindsay Brown, president of the Central Arkansas Labor Council, “It’s a hell of a plan, and it works.”

We are supposed to applaud philanthropy--the very word connotes altruism and “giving back"--but Walton and Wal-Mart giving serves as a reminder that philanthropy provides an alternative to taxation, a way for rich people and corporations to decide what to do with their extra money, as opposed to letting the rest of us decide through our elected governments. Since charitable donations are a tax write-off, as Krehely points out, “they are supposed to benefit the public good.” He thinks it is reasonable to ask whether a family’s--or a company’s--philanthropy serves the common good, or at least enough good “to make up for the public revenue that we’re losing.”

Funny he should mention taxes: Wal-Mart and the Waltons have, after all, been notably reluctant to pay them. Not only has the company lobbied for tax breaks in communities all over the nation, the Waltons--the family that former Wal-Mart board member Hillary Clinton has called “the best America has to offer"--have campaigned vigorously against the estate tax. They have donated money to its opponents, Republicans like John Thune of South Dakota and David Vitter of Louisiana, and enlisted one of Washington’s top lobbying firms, Patton Boggs--a leading anti-estate tax lobbyist--to represent their interests.

In addition to campaigning specifically against the estate tax, the Waltons also give money to groups that generally favor tax giveaways to the rich, like Americans for Tax Reform. And the Waltons have already reaped the benefits of tax policies enacted by the conservatives they helped put in office: This year Bush’s dividend tax cut will save the family $51 million, according to Lee Farris, an estate-tax expert with the Boston-based United for a Fair Economy.

The Waltons’ philanthropy--and their hostility to paying their fair share of taxes--also needs to be viewed in the context of tax subsidies Wal-Mart has received for building new stores, which Good Jobs First places at more than $1 billion, an estimate that does not include the many other ways taxpayers subsidize Wal-Mart stores, for instance, through numerous forms of public assistance--Medicaid, Food Stamps, public housing--that often allow workers to subsist on Wal-Mart’s low wages.

Since the Waltons don’t say much about their future plans, or about their internal family politics, it’s unclear what lies in store for this--currently--right-wing fortune. 

One item in the Walton Family Foundation’s most recent IRS filing shows how uninterested this family is in true social responsibility: a measly $6,000 to something called the Wal-Mart Associates in Need Fund. Contrast that with the millions the family spends promoting right-wing causes, and it becomes painfully clear that the Waltons value conservative ideology far more than they value the human beings who have made them the richest family on earth. Told about these figures, Kathleen MacDonald, a Wal-Mart candy department clerk in Aiken, South Carolina, responded bluntly, “All I have to say about that is, it doesn’t surprise me. Like Bush, they don’t have a clue what working families go through.” MacDonald would like to see The Simple Life do a show about working at Wal-Mart. “I could see Paris Hilton on a register at Christmastime, or stocking shelves,” she says. Or perhaps Alice Walton as a greeter, on her feet all day, thanking us for shopping at Wal-Mart.

Thanks ddrb. Everything is so calculated these days!
If Alice Walton does become a greeter [at Walmart], will she still be able to wear the big ugly hats that make her look ridiculous?

R E M E M B E R
J O N Q U I E R E
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

R E M E M B E R
J A C K S O N V I L L E
T E X A S
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

Alex: Think it woud really make a difference?