More and more businesses seem to be asking for donations these days. Sometimes they ask me to support an organization that I'm familiar with and I happily kick in a buck or two. There are times, however, when the request is a bit more vague. For instance, I was checking out at the grocery store last year when the woman at the register asked, "Would you like to donate a dollar to cancer?" What does that even mean? "No", I replied. "I hate cancer. I'm not giving a dollar to it."

Yesterday, I encountered the receipt in the photo. That is a picture of the customer copy. The one that I filled out had lots of scribbles, because I assumed I was filling in the Tip Amount, which is normally in that position. I scratched out the "Charity Donation" and put the numbers in the Tip area. This struck me as a bit deceptive; as if the hope is that someone will inadvertently fill out the Donation section, realize their mistake, and then write in a tip as well.

Whether or not it is intended to be deceptive, it is still a bad idea. Would you blindly give money to something that just says "Charity Donation"?

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