The "deal" with tobacco company philanthropy is that tobacco companies sometimes offer funds or other gifts to organizations. They do this in order to associate themselves with the organizations, to tap into the organizations’ good reputations. They often spend many times more money to advertise to the world about their donations than they spend on the actual donations. There are several reasons why gifts from tobacco companies are never a good deal for women’s and girls’ organizations.
- On August 17, 2006, the major tobacco companies were found by a federal court to be in violation of the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act – the RICO Act – because they have been defrauding the American public for decades. In her decision, Judge Gladys Kessler stipulated that the violations have not stopped. Tobacco companies are now proven racketeers. They continue to lie about their products and target youth. Associating with racketeers, accepting gifts from them, surely goes against the mission of organizations that care about women or girls.
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What treasured values does an organization have to drop in order to accept tobacco company donations?
Its mission, reputation, integrity and accountability – because accepting donations from tobacco companies would be associating with known racketeers.
Empowerment – because tobacco products addict their users, making them dependent on products that cause them harm.
Well-being – because tobacco products make their users ill and ultimately kill half of them.
Social justice – because tobacco companies target specific populations, including women, girls, and people of low socio-economic status.
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- Tobacco companies exploit the valuable reputations of women’s and girls’ organizations. They donate in hopes that legislators and future jurors (aren’t we all?) will see them as “socially responsible” and “good corporate citizens” and will be influenced to rule in their favor when deciding on legal matters. Internal documents from the companies’ own private files reveal their true motives. Here are a few example’s from Anne Landman’s Doc-Alert files:
- Sponsorship is a form of marketing for tobacco companies and therefore contributes to addicting 3,000 new young smokers every day. When the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement further limited the ways in which tobacco companies could promote their products, they turned to indirect advertising and increased their budgets for donations.
- The money that tobacco companies donate came from the pockets of people who are addicted to a product that make them sick. Every year in the United States, 178,000 women die from tobacco-related diseases. Organizations that might consider accepting donations of any type from a tobacco company should think hard about the source of the funds and the fact that accepting donations will result in more young people taking up smoking and more untimely deaths. There are other, better ways to obtain funding.
Tobacco companies cause disease and death. They are not satisfied with manufacturing their products to supply people who are already addicted (most of whom want to quit). They persist in trying to lure new customers with new products and clever marketing campaigns, including tempting sponsorships and donations. Like cancer, the tobacco companies should be confined and removed to prevent the spread of their diseases. One of the ways of confining them is to refuse to associate with them.
When an organization signs a written commitment to refuse tobacco company donations, the organization’s mission is reaffirmed
and a legacy is established for future practices of the organization.
Many organizations have taken this step. Leaders of several
organizations agreed to tell about their reasons for adopting
this policy. “Sever the Ties” is a 13-minute video of their stories.
For assistance with your commitment,
contact us
or your
local tobacco control partnership.
If your organization already has a policy, please tell us.
View the Video
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