Just how charitable is it?

I'm back!...and typing one handed. If you aren't aware, I recently (8 weeks ago) gave birth. But that is beside the point.

So here it is. I'm sure most people with a television have seen the most recent ad campaign for Dawn dish soap. But this is a quick recap. There are several cute furry animals covered in oil and soap suds. They tell you that some giant number of animal's lives have been saved by Dawn soap. THEN they tell you that for every bottle purchased, Dawn will donate $1 to saving more wildlife from oil spills.
I think this is fabulous. I really do. I use Dawn for so many things at my house. I use it to bath my puppies and kitties when they need it-- like when poo gets stuck to their fluffy hindquarters! I also use it as a stain pretreater on all of my greasy messes. It works great on tomato sauce stains! So, when I need dish soap, of course that's what I buy. And I feel really good about myself and my contribution to a great charity.
Well here is the truth about my charitable contribution.
I've done a lot of dishes lately. Babies use more water everyday than grown people! So I've had time to read the fine print. The contribution that I am making really isn't that fantastic. The print on the bottle shows the 1 Bottle = $1. Underneath it says, in tiny writing, "up to $500,000.00." Do you see my dilema?
Now I haven't done any research on this subject, but I'm pretty sure that at least 500,000 bottles of dish soap are sold daily in the U.S.. So does that mean that only one days national sales have counted toward this charitable contribution? I am also predicting that an NFP wildlife conservation organization has operating costs of more than $500,000.00 annually.
I just feel like I'm being duped into thinking that my contribution is more than it actually is worth.
This won't deter me from continuing to purchase Dawn. I'm a pretty loyal customer. But it will make me look more closely at the ways I support charities. A direct contribution is always better for an NFP than a quid-pro-quo donation. Operating costs for third party fundraising almost always take up to 50% of the profit. Just something to think about when your kid does a fundraiser or you send money to ST. Jude's for your address labels.

Tamarama Out!