Target To End School Charity Program...

Posters inside Target stores often tout the amount of money the retailer has given to local schools over the years through its Take Charge of Education program, in which it sends 1% of every Redcard holders’ purchase to a school of his or her choice. But Education Week reports that the program - which for 18 years has given $432 million to tens of thousands of schools around the U.S. - will end next Spring. Target notified schools on Monday that it will wind down the program and shift its corporate social responsibility focus to health and wellness.

“When that program started, it was incredibly innovative,” said Laysha Ward, Target’s chief corporate responsibility officer. “There was nothing else like it out there. We just want to continue to innovate.” Target will continue to give 5 percent of its profits, or about $4 million a week, to communities, she said.

She and other Target executives are working on the precise scope of the firm’s future charitable programs. She said they will roll out next year and will likely engage social media. She cited the buy-one-give-one campaign for back-to-school supplies the company launched last fall as another example of where the company is headed. The Take Charge of Education program, she added, had a “phenomenal” run. But only 10 percent of Redcard holders enrolled in the program and, when the company surveyed shoppers, it found that many did not remember if they had designated a school.

The change will be a disappointment to schools, which had become accustomed to receiving the unrestricted funds every year to cover budget gaps for everything from school supplies to after-school programs. Target says schools received an average of $370 a year from the program, though some schools who actively promoted the program received thousands of dollars a year.