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@snowy_again
Sorry CG, my tone was a little harsh in the last message as I'm in the middle of rejecting funding applications, cos the person I work for today doesn't have enough money to fund them, and that sometimes makes me tetchy.
I give between 10-12% of my income in cash, and give my time and energy to 3 voluntary organisations outside of my work hours.
In terms of ethical fundraising, most of the charities I work for are stuck in that dilemma of where they source their income from.
One homelessness social enterprise adamantly doesn't take cash from donors (be they wealthy individuals, corporate sponsors, 'gambling' etc.) who don't follow their same notion of ethical investment (arms trade, exploitative labour, some chemicals stuff). On the obvious grounds that the money is profit from exploitation.
However, many banks / companies like to have them as part of their annual Corporate Social Responsibility pamphlet and are continually chasing them / sending them unsolicited cheques, full well knowing that they own shares or entire companies making armaments, or contribute to the root cause of some of the people's homelessness. Slightly stupid, but they're aware that the publicity of being linked to the 'worthy' is good PR and good for their share holders egos at Christmas.
Corporate donation in the UK is at a much lower level than that of the US, inherently because Henry the 8th established the notion of charity here, and the UK has a more established social support structure that isn't based on 'might is right'. I'm not saying that the individual's giving at your company is wrong, its just that lots of people regularly give, it doesn't matter whether they work for a blue chip or not.
(oh and before someone makes the comment, no, I'm not a street chugger).