You may have heard about the Australian insurance company who launched an advertising campaign right after last week’s MH17 airline tragedy: "Is MH17 Malaysia Airlines tragedy a sign to consider life insurance?". They were rightly condemned for this and it was very quickly removed. This was a blatant form of ‘cashing in’ and it is deplorable that any person or business thought it was acceptable to do this.

But it is actually not this sort of ‘cashing in’ to which I am referring in the title of this article. Each time there is a disaster or a wide-spread tragedy, most of us feel helpless and many of us want to find ways to help. As business owners, we are often in a great position to coordinate assistance, but here is the difficult part: at what point do we cross the line between genuinely assisting victims of a tragedy and ‘using’ the tragedy to provide exposure for our businesses?

In the days following the MH17 airline tragedy, a well-known women’s media website posted on social media: “Details here on how to leave messages of support and condolence…”. But rather than linking directly to the Prime Minister’s condolence website, it linked to an article on their website.This crossed the line for me as there was no need to go via their site and it was viewed by many followers as ‘cashing in’.

Perhaps asking yourself the following questions will help you decide what action is appropriate:

-       Can I achieve the same or similar outcome if this is done anonymously?

-       Am I really being generous or am I (truthfully) seeing this as a way to gain publicity for my business?

-       Can I partner with larger aid agencies by posting links to their campaigns, rather than donations coming via my business (in response to my ‘special promotion’)?

-       Am I prepared to support this cause long term or am I just getting caught up in the hype of a topical issue?

Michelle Grice writes a weekly column for business women in The Western Weekender