11/07/05 Monday question - Charity proceedings

Welcome to Vine to Wine, this is your host Linda Moran, today we are answering questions from the email. Recently a listener wrote to ask "During the holidays we see wines that claim to donate proceeds to a charitable cause. How do we know if it is worthwhile to support them?" Well the question of scrutiny over donating the portion of proceeds from the sale of wine to a charity is an interesting question. But - at this time of the year - it is a great question. Actually the portion of sales from wine is no different than any other product that makes the claim Does the advertising simply say that "a portion of the proceeds" will be donated  does it specifiy what percentage of the sale will be donated  does it state that the "profits from the sale" of this product will go to the charity? That would be the ultimate! Read the fine print carefully and decide for yourself if that is satisfactory to you. But do realize that the common practice seems to be that 10% or lessof the sale will end up in the coffers of the charity. Still don't underestimate the impact that those small amounts can have during the holidays. As they say, it all adds up. If you are going to buy a bottle of wine anyway - why not appreciate the fact that at least some of that money goes to a worthy cause. If you want to read more about this practice there is an article dedicated to the topic on the Better Business Bureau website www.give.org Remember to send your wine questions to Linda at vine to wine dot net and thank you for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.