Friday, April 27, 2007

A Good Cause?

As a small business owner in downtown Racine, I am frequently asked to give donations for one cause or another. It is a delicate problem.

For starters, it is likely that the average person on the street has more cash than the average retailer in downtown. So I would go broke if I gave to even one fourth of those that request money or other donations.

Perhaps I am being a bit sensitive here, but the requests are often accompanied by promises to patronize the business. The implication to me is that a denied request could mean no patronization.

So I do my best to gently deny the requests when I must, and this is difficult. Often someone needs life saving surgery or a parent died and the child needs money for this or that. It can be heartbreaking.

Yesterday an employee of my business received a call from someone asking for money to fund a party for Racine Unified secretaries. Unlike most requests, my donation would not be tax deductable. So I didn't feel even the slightest twinge of guilt in denying the request. Truth be told, my employee took it upon herself to deny the request on my behalf. Anyway,why would anyone agree to pay for the RUSD secretaries to have a party?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK - this is a joke right? You're just testing us to see if we're gullible enough to believe this actually happened?

Denis Navratil said...

No, it actually happened.

Anonymous said...

so... the city council plans to write an new ordinance making it mandatory to have an occupancy permit for all rentals including residential. Can you imagine, when we opened our office it cost 175 to building dept, then the parade of the head insp, plumber, electrician and fire dept all had to give it their ok, if there was an issue you had to hire a contractor licensed with the city to pull the permits, do the work and then schedule another inspection. as long as 2 weeks out. Now... if your tenant has to do all this prior to moving in can you imagine the headaches and costs to landlords. they will discuss this on tues may 1st at 7pm, agenda was posted late friday, not like they were slipping it in. Helding at it again looking to generate funds and fleece the property owners...

Denis Navratil said...

Thanks for the tip anon. Sounds like needless hassles the way you describe it. Perhaps I will be able to attend the meeting and see for myself.