OK - so how much is too much?

Since Katrina hit so close to home, we had a drive here at work and collected money from all of the employees that wanted to give and then the company would match it 100% and donate to the Red Cross. I thought that was pretty decent of our company to do - we ended up collecting somewhere in the neighborhood of $25,000. which is not too bad for a company of 250 people. So anyway, the company matched it, raised it and actually ended up donating around $100K. Makes me proud of my company.

So then, our "social committee" met to discuss our upcoming company picnic - supposed to be in mid October. There are about 18 of us as representatives of all departments that meet to plan all of our social events such as the picnic. Well, we discussed the picnic and felt that it just might be "out of place" for us to go and spend $15,000 - $20,000 on a picnic when there is so much going on just around the corner. So how about we cancel the picnic and use that money to sponsor some local evacuees, or some other worthy cause. Now I guess this needs to be prefaced with the fact that about 2 years ago our CEO did the same thing with our Annual Christmas * Winter Celebration Party - cancelled it and from then on we just have a small luncheon and donate the rest of the money to local charities such as Make a Wish, or Toys for Tots - etc... Ok then, so back to the picnic. We're thinking - Geesh, who could really argue with canceling the picnic - it's all for a good cause, right? Well - WRONG. Of course, we have actually gotten quite a bit of negative feedback. In general - what I'm hearing is along the lines of "what about me?" - I've already given several times to the Hurricane Fund, I've already given up the Christmas Winter Celebration Party, What do I get? We don't do ANYTHING for the employees anymore.

So, I'm wondering - how much is too much? I feel that these are all worthy causes and I certainly can't argue with giving up a little on my side to give so much to them. But what about the employees, company morale and all of that? What do you think?

We're meeting again tomorrow afternoon to discuss our options and what we might want to do - another side of this, is that our 50% non-refundable deposit is still with the picnic company and they will not refund it, even for what we want to do with it. They've also said that we need to use it this year or lose it. Anyway - just some food for thought.

* Just to be politically correct - it's a big thing here where I work, can't call it the christmas party at all.