6 Ways to Tell When a Business Is Faking Generosity
This time of year brings out a flood of charity campaigns and public gestures. Every crisis brings out the same kind of statement: “We’re partnering with the community to help those in need.” Then you read the fine print and realize it’s not the business giving. It’s you.
If a company isn’t spending its own money during a crisis, it isn’t helping. It’s marketing. Real help means financial sacrifice, not a photo with a food drive bin in the corner of the store.
When SNAP funds lapse, it’s not an awareness problem. It’s a material one. Families need food, not branding campaigns. And yet, businesses with six-figure revenues will roll out canned food drives, asking working people to fix what a system of profit has already broken.
That’s not generosity. That’s a deflection.
If you want to tell the difference between a business that’s helping and one that’s hiding, look for a few simple signs:
Follow the money. Are they giving from their own profits, or asking you to donate instead? Real contributors say what they’ve spent, not what they’ve collected.
Watch the language. “Partnering,” “raising awareness,” and “hosting drives” are marketing words. “Funding,” “covering,” and “providing” are action words.
Check for transparency. If a company won’t say where the food or money goes, or how much they’ve personally added, it’s probably just a PR shield.
Notice who benefits. If the company logo is bigger than the cause, it’s not about community. It’s about reputation management.
Be wary of QR codes. If all you see on social media are QR codes and donation links being pushed by a business, that’s a bad sign. It usually means they aren’t contributing anything themselves, just passing the responsibility to the public while collecting the credit.
Look at timing. If they only started “giving back” when the crisis hit or when the holidays began, that’s not compassion. That’s strategy. Real help doesn’t need a calendar reminder.
At our farm, we don’t ask anyone to do what we aren’t already doing ourselves. We put our own labor, income, and farm revenue into feeding people through our no-barrier pantry. Donations help us reach more families, but the foundation comes from us.
If a business can afford to advertise, it can afford to help. The difference is whether they actually care to.