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Does Target NOT charitably support veteran's groups but does support "gay and lesbian causes?"  FALSE 

article revised 09/00/2006

The original message that began this uproar came from a man named Dick Forrey from the Howard County Vietnam Veteran's in Indiana.   Mr. Forrey went to his local Target store to ask for financial sponsorship for a traveling Vietnam Veterans' Memorial Wall exhibit.  Individual Target stores can give gift certificates to support area charities.  That is the same thing Walmart does.  The store did offer the gift certificate, but Mr. Forrey was interested only in a cash donation.  The store failed to tell him that the corporate office had a charitable giving policy in the form of grants.  Forrey finally found this out and contacted the corporate office.  In their correspondence to Mr. Forrey, they outlined their corporate grant policy as being limited to the following:  "education, arts and family violence prevention."  It is possible that this project may have been considered as educational, but Mr. Forrey decided not to even try for the grant and sent off an email stating that,  "Personally, I will NOT be buying anything at Target Stores again. If the Vietnam Veteran does not meet their area of giving then why should I as a Vietnam veteran, spend my hard earned money in their stores?"  It is very possible, considering Target's support of the traveling Vietnam wall project (more on that below), that the project would have qualified.  It was Mr. Forrey's decision not to go any further with the grant request and to put out this email instead. 

In his email, Mr. Forrey correctly quoted Target's grant policy as being, "education, arts and family violence prevention."  In March 2003, someone changed Mr. Forrey's words to read, "the arts, social actions, gay and lesbian causes, and education."  Not only does this message misquote Mr. Forrey, it is a patently false misrepresentation of Target's charitable grants policy.  Target did not respond back to Mr. Forrey that "veterans do not meet our area of giving."  As you will later see, it would be absurd for them to say such a thing since they are corporate sponsors of the traveling Viet Nam memorial called "The Wall That Heals."

I do want to say a couple of personal words about Mr. Forrey's attitude towards Target.  The fact that Target restricts actual corporate giving to certain areas is not at all unusual.  You cannot imagine how many charitable requests are received by even the smallest of companies on a daily basis.  I know, I used to be one of the people making those requests.  There's only so much of a pie to go around.  The gift certificate policy of Target is quite generous.  There are always small needs at special events that can be helped with these gift certificates.  To tell a corporation what it can and can't give is a little high-handed.  Even when I asked for a sponsorship, I was grateful if all I got was a prize or certificate.  At least the company wanted to help, even in a small way.  I realize that someone like Mr. Forrey is a volunteer fund raiser, but even he should realize that not everyone can give and that some will only be able to give certain things.  This strong-arm approach (give or else I'll make your name mud) is unwarranted.  Mr. Forrey had the opportunity to submit his project to the company for a grant, just like everyone else.  He was the one who decided that the project did not fit their categories of giving, not Target.

Target is a major corporate sponsor for the "Wall That Heals" 2003 tour and many veterans organizations, including the national chapter of Veterans of Foreign Wars, have come to the company's defense over this issue. (information gleaned from Break-The-Chain and Snopes- links shown below).  I have also found out about other veterans issues and groups that Target supports. These include: Yankee Air Force Museum in Ypsilanti, Michigan; Hays County Veterans in San Marcos, Texas;  Kenny Nickelson Memorial Foundation for Homeless Veterans in Manhattan Beach, California.  Finally, they are very supportive of the veterans and military reservists working for them.  A recent email lauded Sears for continuing benefits for reservists, but Target does the same. The Reserve Officers Association has recognized Target for these benefits.

Versions of the message that began coming out in April 2003 also claim that Target is French owned.  My best guess is that this was supposed to lend weight to the "anti-vet" stance because, at the time, the French bashing campaign (resulting from their lack of support for the war against Iraq) was in full swing.   However, a little research revealed that this is untrue.   Target Stores is owned by a company out of Minneapolis that also owns Marshal Fields and Meryvn's.  It began in 1902 as the Dayton Dry Goods Company out of Minneapolis.  The company name was changed to Dayton's in 1953.  The first Target Store opens in 1962.  In 1971, the company merges with J.L. Hudson, a Detroit company which owns shopping centers and Mervyn's. They now become the Dayton-Hudson Company.  They acquire Marshal Field's in 1990. In 1996, the main focus of their community giving becomes education.  In 2000 they officially change their name to Target Corporation.  The HQ is still in Minneapolis.  The company does have publicly traded stocks, so persons residing in France could certainly own stocks.

In a message to me, Target spokesperson Aimee Sands detailed their policy about the Toys For Tots issue.  "Target greatly respects the good work of the Toys for Tots program and all the volunteers who make this program a success every year. Target has a longstanding policy of no-solicitation by any group or organization at our stores. This policy includes the use of our store locations as collection or drop off sites for any type of activity. The only organization that we currently allow to solicit at our stores during the holiday season is the Salvation Army, due to our longstanding relationship with this organization."

If we were to follow the advice of this message, we could not shop at any department store, since none of them, to my knowledge, are Toys For Tots collection centers.  In my area, the collection center is at a bank.

Finally, here are Target's official words on the subject: "Target Corporation wholeheartedly supports U.S. veterans, reservists and active duty personnel. We are proud of our record and remain committed to continuing support of veterans’ organizations as part of our overall charitable giving program."

I spend a good portion of November and December 2003 doing nearly nothing but answering inquires on this message.  That is too bad since a one minute search through any search engine would have provided all of this factual information.  I don't mean to be too harsh, but I cannot see how the forwarding of this message can be constituted as anything but "bearing false witness."

Versions coming out after Christmas also accuse Target of booting the Salvation Army.  This allegation is true.  However, for many years Target has had a policy of NOT allowing charity groups (or any groups) to solicit in front of stores.  They made an exception for the Salvation Army.  When Target decided not to have the Salvation Army back in 2005, they pointed to their policy, but no real explanation was given as to why they chose to break it all those years before nor why they chose that year to boot them.  This being the case, Target was not exhibiting any anti-religious bias.

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