When human-aid and business meet, sandals are swapped for suits. Embedded giving is the practice of building a philanthropic gift into another, unrelated, financial transaction.

• red campagne Bono's plan to shop for a better world.
• Unicef corporate partners list Procter & Gamble join with Unicef to link every pamper to a tetanus injection for an African Child.
• Eart Water why donate money to the UNHCR directly if you can start a company in between?
• Share our Strength work with American Express
• Walgreens work one day to fights juvenile diabetes.
• Working Assets every time you make a call, you make a contribution.

• the Love Ring from the Belgian PeaceUnited brand.
• Hanna Andersson children's clothes.
• Baneys' Have a Green Holiday catalog.

Jon Lidén of the RED Campaign:
The only thing we care about is getting more money to save more lives in Africa. We don't join debates about consumerism. Sorry, there are people dying here!

Jack Siegel is working to get a system of regulations:
In the Whole Foods store I was almost forced to donate to a breast-cancer fund. The cashier was so aggressive that I refused. When she sneeringly asked why I didn't donate, I filed a complaint.

Johan van de Gronden of WWF-Netherlands:
We have to be very careful about going into these kind of ventures. It could ruin our good name. We look for long term solutions, so don't push the biocotton T-shirt, but try to reduce the water-usage of Pakistan's cotton industry by two-thirds.

Sources: article in NRC Handelsblad by Caroline de Gruyter 25-01-08 and philantrophy-blog

“The […] Red initiative was intended to help millions of Aids sufferers in Africa, by encouraging companies to launch red products and donate a fraction of profits to charity. But the project, which cost an estimated £50million to set up, has raised just £9million for the needy, critics have claimed. They said firms such as Gap, Apple and Motorola would have done more good just handing money directly to the Global Fund […] http://Buylesscrap.org, a website which recommends people give directly to charity, said: 'The Red campaign proposes consumption as the cure to the world's evils. Can't we just focus on the real solution – giving money?' ” http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=40256&in_page_id=34&ito=newsnow

“Shopping is not a solution” http://buylesscrap.org/

Rob Frankel on “Bono's Red Blunder” > http://robfrankel.blogspot.com/2007/03/bonos-red-blunder.html