Cynthia A. Magee

To this day I can recall looking into the penetrating brown eyes of a child holding a cup or a bowl looking sad and hopeful at the same time. The depth of emotion in that little girl’s eyes moved me even though I was a child too. I wanted to help. I needed to help even though I did not have a job to pay the pennies a day it cost to support this starving child. My parents wanted me to do the right thing but they also wanted me to understand that not all charities are charitable.

As an adult in the 21st century I have the ability to search online to investigate the credibility of charities. Charity Navigator is a website designed to provide information about how charities are doing financially. While financial stability is an indicator that the charity is good at making and keeping money, it is it fair to assume that charities with poor financial planning are a less worthy cause to invest in. Logically one would invest in a business that makes money instead of losing it. However, logic and emotion are two opposing tools that marketers pit against each other in order to gain sales or as a positioning strategy.

Appeals to emotion are two sided coins. Not everyone is going to have empathy for the images of starving children the world over. Filtering the financial statements of charities into sub categories in order to leave the information as unbiased as possible still resulted in me thinking that these charities are bad because they do not understand how to handle their money, what kind of charity are they trying to run?

There really is no way of getting around the impact of these ads if you are someone like me. Appeals to fear, guilt, happiness and or elation can be effective tools in the end it just depends on how you feel about it.

Do you let your emotional of rationale side guide your charitable donations?

Graphic Credit:
Animationfactory.com