When I started Yaleās student EA group in 2014, we tried a bit of this (albeit with pharmacies, not grocery stores). IIRC, we got as far as a meeting with CVSās head of corporate social responsibility (CSR), plus a few other conversations.
The companies we spoke to were choosing large, well-known charities. This was partly because of their branding (easier to pick up positive associations from charities people have actually heard of), partly because big charities tend to have highly appealing missions (e.g. St. Judeās, which has used its āfree care for children with cancerā pitch to become Americaās fourth-largest charity), and partly (Iād guess) because the charities were easy to work with thanks to their size and staff capacity.
I also suspect, from these and other CSR-related interactions Iāve had, that changing a charity choice is hard once itās been made. The professionals I meet tend to form relationships with the charities and staffers they work with, and itās hard to tell someone youāve fired them for a more effective charity (forgive the link, it was too easy a joke to make).
When I started Yaleās student EA group in 2014, we tried a bit of this (albeit with pharmacies, not grocery stores). IIRC, we got as far as a meeting with CVSās head of corporate social responsibility (CSR), plus a few other conversations.
The companies we spoke to were choosing large, well-known charities. This was partly because of their branding (easier to pick up positive associations from charities people have actually heard of), partly because big charities tend to have highly appealing missions (e.g. St. Judeās, which has used its āfree care for children with cancerā pitch to become Americaās fourth-largest charity), and partly (Iād guess) because the charities were easy to work with thanks to their size and staff capacity.
I also suspect, from these and other CSR-related interactions Iāve had, that changing a charity choice is hard once itās been made. The professionals I meet tend to form relationships with the charities and staffers they work with, and itās hard to tell someone youāve fired them for a more effective charity (forgive the link, it was too easy a joke to make).