Why "Buy One, Give One" Companies Don't Help Anyone

This has been coming up more and more lately in my conversations with people. I think it flares up around the holidays because people are generally in a giving spirit (or at least in the mindset of gift-giving even if they don't want to) and conversations sometimes go down the slippery slope of talking about the benefits of charities and companies-run-like-charities.

This Adam Ruins Everything video unfortunately tags Toms shoes as the example here, but there are plenty of companies that do stuff like this -- essentially "donating" one of whatever you buy to a community in need. I don't generally like to put these companies down because I think even misaligned giving can be good, but there are some good points here about taking a pause before purchasing and maybe, just maybe, not buying something and instead just giving to a proper charity that can use the funds wisely. Ultimately, it's your money. It reminds me of this other holiday money exercise by Cards Against Humanity... (read their FAQ).