Company History
American Girl was established as Pleasant Company in 1985 by founder Pleasant T. Rowland, a former educator and publisher of educational materials. She created the American Girl brand as a way to educate and entertain girls with quality books, dolls, and toys that integrate learning and play experiences while emphasizing important traditional values. Since that time, American Girl has become one of the nation's most respected brands and has earned the loyal following of millions of girls and the praise and trust of parents and educators.
*** While I can respect that AG seems to have "earmarked" its donations to specific programs at Girls, Inc., I have a problem with AG donating to Girls,Inc., period. AG proudly depicts itself as being founded upon traditional values, and their solicitation and support for donating money to a pro-choice organization, even if earmarked for tissues, is unacceptable to me.
For a perfect example of what can happen when a funding source is "earmarking" donations, one need not look any further than the state of Louisiana, the Levee Board, etc.
I know non-profits...the reality is, if I have earmarked money for columns A, B and C....even if I have not specifcally funded D, E and F, if the first three have been funded by someone else, my money frees them up to spend more on the others...it is a giant paper shell game and it is intellectually dishonest for them to pretend otherwise...
"earmarked" means nothing
an outfit will only shift their other "non-earmarked" donations in such a way as to end up promoting whatever cause they wish. Period.