JAYFORCE

Y’all, Businessweek is some good reading. I get tons of info from just skimming, and when I want more I read more closely. Case in point: The writeup the mag did on the recent ‘quick public relations makeovers’ the NAACP appears to be helping out otherwise hated entities with.

Help The NAACP Help You…Like Donald Sterling Did! Now that’d be a winner of a tagline, right?

And maybe not that far from the truth. The NAACP was happy to recognize Sterling as a ‘sterling’ supporter (yup), until he got in too much trouble. Now, I am not saying the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) cancelled its second award ceremony for embattled (read: racially challenged) NBA Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling because they got caught with their hands in the cookie jar… But Donald, and the mega-rich that donate to the cause as he does… have some nearly irresistible cookies. Cause-driven organizations like the NAACP have always had to balance responsibilities regarding ethics and image while keeping the funding coffers full. The NAACP, therefore, can ill-afford to turn down too many quarter-million-dollar (or way more) donations… even from the likes of Sterling… even when folks had been calling him out as ‘less than appreciative’ of Black folk long before ex-girlfriend V. Stiviano bugged him while actually bugging (e.g. recording his racially insensitive remarks) him.

Hey, his views are his own business, right? Can’t let that influence fundraising, right? Ignore it, NAACP. Your reputation will probably be okay. Money is money. Sterling’s. Wal-Mart’s. Bank Of America’s. FedEx’s… Yeah, pretty much anyone at-risk or already entangled in discrimination-related litigation… can drop some (big) see-what-I-do-for-the-Blacks dollars off to the NAACP. Such investments donations go pretty far in helping clean up even the dirtiest situations and reputations (oops… I mean… go far in helping … um … you know … folks the NAACP helps and stuff).

Interesting. Check out the Businessweek article like I did; and just imagine if former Governor Mitt Romney’s people would have had him drop some money here and there with the NAACP before his whole 47% comments got out and put some of the final nails in his presidential campaign’s coffin.

– @ojones1 (former Communications Officer, NAACP, University of Alabama Chapter)

READ: THE NAACP CAN HELP REPAIR DONORS’ SULLIED REPUTATIONS (BUSINESSWEEK)