Not many Australians like chain coffee. Starbucks has yet to make a dent in an already established cafe culture. Local chain Gloria Jeans has met with better success. This home-grown chain serves the same syrupy overpriced concoctions that led to Starbucks’ fame in the USA. Yet today this local coffee chain is in the news for all the wrong reasons.

Today’s The Sydney Morning Herald features a harrowing tale of faith-based approaches to treating mental illness.  Patients report of abuses that are clear violations of civil liberties. Tragically the centres where these abuses occurred are meant to solve serious mental issues. Instead, they appear to cause more harm.

The centres are all underwritten by donation boxes in local coffee shoppes run by Gloria Jeans. Here is a corporation underwriting a religious organisation that is accused of mishandling women in crisis.   Can I get a muffin to go with that?

For corporations the issue becomes a clearer understanding of which charities you choose to underwrite. Faith-based charities do attract strong support from elements of the community. Sadly they also alienate other parties.Corporate social responsibility (CSR) provides an opportunity for companies to give back to their local communities. Ideally it should provide a win-win for all involved.

But by underwriting a faith-based organisation that has sparse resources to handle women in mental crisis Gloria Jeans has done damage to its reputation. Few corporate communications people want to start their day with this in a leading newspaper:

Taking in girls and women aged 16 to 28, Mercy Ministries claims to offer residents support from “psychologists, general practitioners, dietitians, social workers, [and] career counsellers”. These claims are made on its website, and the programs are promoted through Gloria Jean’s cafes throughout Australia.

But these former residents say no medical or psychological services were provided - just an occasional, monitored trip to a GP, where the consultation takes place in the presence of a Mercy Ministries staff member or volunteer.

Instead, the program is focused on prayer, Christian counselling and expelling demons from in and around the young women, who say they begged Mercy Ministries to let them get medical help for the conditions they were suffering, which included bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders and anorexia.

My advice is simple - do get involved in CSR, but make sure you thoroughly vet any organisation before bringing your brands together. You may indelibly tarnish your reputation if you don’t.