The recent earthquake in Haiti has caused a huge amount of devastation, and as usual the creative community wants to get involved and help in whatever way they can. I would imagine that simply giving money to the Red Cross or other aid organisation is a more immediate and effective way of giving money to help with the ongoing effort in the country, but there’s certainly nothing wrong with buying a tee when a good portion of the sale is going to a charity.
The top tee is from Doubletake clothing and costs $15 with at least $8 going to UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders, and CSI Ministries. The more of them they sell the more they will be able to give to charity due to the economies of scale. That tee also comes with free shipping, so going further than giving away 100% of their profit, I think they might actually be making a loss, which is admirable. Crucially, Doubletake say that they trust the way that these charities spend their money, which is a very important issue to consider when making a donation to any charity, how much of your money will actually be going to those that need it? Personally, I’m always a little bit wary of religious charities, but in a disaster zone I’d hope they were actually getting stuff done rather than preaching, because whilst I’m happy to let people have their own beliefs, I’d be pretty pissed if were in Haiti right now because I’d have to wonder why God decided to ruin the island. There’s also a $20 version of the t-shirt for people wwho would like to donate an extra five bucks to the chosen charities.
The blue tee comes from American Dance Party and costs $15, with 100% of the profit going to charity. I don’t like that it isn’t a specific amount being donated, but it’s understandable because if you tell people that then they might expect to pay less for your regular tees, and I don’t particularly like that you don’t know which organisation the donation will be going to, for the reasons mentioned above, but it is a pretty cool t-shirt, and reading through this article it does feel like I’m probably being a bit too cynical about the whole chari-tee thing, but it would be nice to have the facts about where my money is going.
