Interesting article in the Weekend Wall Street Journal:  Internships for Sale – The New Path to a Top Summer Job: Get Mom and Dad to Buy It at a School Auction; That’s Raising Concerns About Fairness, by Ellen Gamerman:

In the competitive world of summer internships, a new route to plum spots is emerging: buying them at auctions, often at elite private schools. This spring, internships at Morgan Stanley, NBC, Miramax, WebMD, Electronic Arts and a host of other companies have been put out to bid at auctions across the country. Bids often reach into the $2,000 to $5,000 range. Some internships are unpaid; in other cases the winners’ kids receive a salary….

Tax lawyers say a company would not likely claim a paid or unpaid internship as a tax-deductible contribution because the intern is doing work that is presumably benefiting the company, not the charity.