How a charity can hurt its cause

A new fundraiser undermines the United Way's antipoverty ideals.

from the January 10, 2008 edition

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More than one-third of cardholders with balances above $10,000 have household incomes of $50,000 or less. Thirteen percent have incomes below $30,000. Lower-income families increasingly tend to use credit cards to pay for health and other basic needs – not designer dresses or handbags.

Promoting credit card use as a mechanism for charitable giving is not an antipoverty message befitting the United Way's community-impact agenda.

But linking to the United Way certainly helps credit-card companies and their bank sponsors. Banks haven't earned a lot of sympathy in the current crises over predatory lending and subprime foreclosure. Working with the United Way – one of the most trusted and valuable brands in the world, as measured by Interbrand, a firm – gives these lenders a boost in public image.

Good PR through charity link-ups is even more important for credit card-issuing banks. Last May, Sens. Carl Levin (D) of Michigan and Claire McCaskill (D) of Missouri held hearings and introduced legislation to stop what they called unfair credit-card practices. Their bill called for limiting interest-rate hikes, applying rate increases only to future debt, prohibiting interest charges on fees, and more. Last month, Senator Levin chaired another hearing on abusive credit-card practices, such as automatically raising cardholders' interest rates when their credit scores declined or when they were late in making payments.

The United Way may have found a cause-related marketing scheme that, because of US consumers' increasing addiction to credit cards, will yield big infusions of contributions over time.

But the banks and credit-card companies may have found a useful tool to fend off bad press, angry senators, and looming federal restrictions. The holiday announcement of Pennies for Change got much more press attention, abetted by United Way marketing materials, than the results of Levin's credit-card hearings did.

For credit card-issuing banks, mired in the subprime mortgage scandals, a cause-related marketing scheme linked to the United Way represents the highest in corporate financial literacy. Yet it also undercuts the United Way's attempts to increase individual financial literacy – a key tool in its antipoverty efforts aimed, in the organization's own words, at "promoting self-sufficiency and strengthening families."

Rick Cohen is the national correspondent for The Nonprofit Quarterly.

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