I think you're both right here. Making it easy to donate to a cause with which you believe, by making a donation box available, is awesome. Guilt tripping you into it is wrong. Asking you loudly at the register is wrong. Matching my donation (a form of shaming if you don't donate) is wrong. A grocery store around here use to do a "we are donating $x to this charity, help us if you can by adding to the pile" thing, which was nice. They donated what they donated, and you added on top of that if you could. They made it easy. Then they got on the "we'll match your donation" train, and that, imo, was wrong. Pure chutzpah. I stopped donating at the stores when that happened. I'll still donate directly to the organization, though, if I agree with their cause.
I think you're both right here. Making it easy to donate to a cause with which you believe, by making a donation box available, is awesome. Guilt tripping you into it is wrong. Asking you loudly at the register is wrong. Matching my donation (a form of shaming if you don't donate) is wrong. A grocery store around here use to do a "we are donating $x to this charity, help us if you can by adding to the pile" thing, which was nice. They donated what they donated, and you added on top of that if you could. They made it easy. Then they got on the "we'll match your donation" train, and that, imo, was wrong. Pure chutzpah. I stopped donating at the stores when that happened. I'll still donate directly to the organization, though, if I agree with their cause.