Making sure your values are in tune with your purpose when subscribing to a charitable cause as this is no small matter.  Your definition for supporting the charity should not be taken lightly and should compliment your goals.  After all your entire credibility is at stake should your charity turn out to be a sham, or in some cases be mis-managed.

When the mega brand that is Oprah unknowingly extended the arm of goodwill to building a girls school in South Africa , the effect were adverse and far reaching.  Oprah strives to compliment and help and unfortunately her care campaign received a major knock when the goodwill strategy received unprecedented international attention.

If you are going to support a charity as part of your brand awareness strategy or even if you just want to be a good samaritian you need to ensure that your alignment does not have a possibility of turning on you, especially if you are going to use the publicity.  Recovery can be difficult and sometimes will bring down a brand.

More recently online businesses are making the link a brand can have to environmental concerns.  As the world strives to become a better place there are company's aligning their brands to philanthropic efforts in an effort to guarantee returns.

This of course begs me to ask you how would you align yourself or your brand to a charity?  Has charitable attachments become big business and tax write off's.  Who really benefits in the end?

If there was one charity that you would align your brand to who would it be and why?

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