do-gooders

Why Is Chase Bank Willing to Give NOM Some Of Its $5 Million Charity Prize?

chasefacebook

Would you like to donate cash to the National Organization for Marriage Educational Fund, which NOM describes as “engaged solely in pro-marriage education and research”? Great news! You can still support it without giving up any of your hard earned cash. Because JPMorgan Chase, which reported $3.6 billion in profit last quarter, is willing to do it for you.

The financial company’s consumer Chase Bank division operates something called Chase Community Giving, its do-goody cause unit that let the company’s flacks point to all the good the bank is doing (even though it earns $5 million in ATM overdraft fees, like, every 8 seconds).

Powered by Facebook, the program lets you choose which charitable organizations Chase will give part of its $5 million purse to. On the list? NOM’s Educational Fund.

Which is sort of curious, because as reader Andrew notes, Chase Community Giving’s own “clear and simple” rules state in Section 4 that any organization that “by itself or through an affiliated entity, discriminates on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability, age, veteran status, medical condition, citizenship, ancestry or marital status is not eligible.”

Discriminating based on sexual orientation is NOM’s entire reason for existing.

In all likelihood, the drop-down list of charities Chase’s Facebook app lets you select were proffered by a standard non-profit database provider, without much editing on Chase’s part. And in order to get any cash, NOM would have be among the top 100 vote receivers in Round 1 (they’d receive $25k), and score even more votes to get more cash (up to $1m). And at just 6,600 fans, it doesn’t look like NOM has the votes.


UPDATE: JPMorgan Chase spokeswoman Jennifer Zuccarelli writes Queerty: “Organizations that receive votes from the Guidestar database will be reviewed to make sure they’re in compliance with our guidelines.” Which, it goes without saying — although we’d appreciate a more definitive answer — would disqualify NOM.

Don't forget to share:

Help make sure LGBTQ+ stories are being told...

We can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. That's why we don't lock Queerty articles behind a paywall. Will you support our mission with a contribution today?

Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated