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Joined: 06 Nov 2007
Posts: 296
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 Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 1:09 pm Post subject: Charities, GAH! |
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Please indulge me in my teeny-weeny little rant.
I hate it that I send money to one charity and then I get flooded with mailings from tons of other charities. Worse, whichever charity I send a check to will keep sending me more requests for donation, weekly it seems like. Do they think I'm rich?
Why, why do they do that? Are they trying to turn people off by annoying them to death? Not to mention the wasteful spending in sending out little trinkets and whatnot.
Gah!!!!!!!!!!!
I've decided I'm not donating anymore, except for catastrophic events. 
Thank you for letting me get that off my chest. |
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iluvarake
Joined: 26 Jan 2009
Posts: 719
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| Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 3:03 pm Post subject: |
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I feel the same way. I make annual donations as I am able to afford and it galls me that they use so much of my donation in postage and printing to ask for more! One of the worst offenders is my local NPR station. They set up the donation levels as annual memberships then 3 months later send another letter asking for more.
I'm thinking of mailing anonymous money orders just to put an end to it.
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Justin managed to look superior and bored and disbelieving all at once. No mean feat for a man who'd just fallen from a tree. |
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willaful
Joined: 02 Jan 2008
Posts: 1468
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| Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 5:43 pm Post subject: |
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Word. I sent a donation to March of Dimes, and they are constantly sending me mailings with address labels or dimes in them... I'm pretty sure they've spent everything I've sent them on trying to get more out of me.
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"I say, don't read the classics -- try to discover your own classics; every life has its own." -- Rudolf Flesch, _How to Make Sense_ |
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LeeB.
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 1221
Location: Seattle, WA
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| Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 8:44 pm Post subject: |
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I totally agree. That's why I usually give cash at work for any charities we support.
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Charlotte McClain
Joined: 04 Oct 2008
Posts: 392
Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE
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| Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 9:46 pm Post subject: |
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I tend to do cash as well. I also tend to tip really well because I know where the money is going when I give a good tip to the Bangladeshi cab driver or the Filapina waitress and none of it goes to administrative costs. But that's not as good an option when you are in the US.
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Niftybergin
Joined: 27 Mar 2007
Posts: 1066
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| Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 6:20 am Post subject: |
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| I've gotten on a few mailing lists as well. I try not to let it guilt me, though. If I feel like sending a few bucks, I do. If not, well...it's not like I ASKED them to send me those fancy address labels!! |
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Tee
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 4046
Location: Detroit Metro
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| Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 6:30 am Post subject: |
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| Niftybergin wrote: | | I've gotten on a few mailing lists as well. I try not to let it guilt me, though. If I feel like sending a few bucks, I do. If not, well...it's not like I ASKED them to send me those fancy address labels!! |
Pretty much my attitude. I laugh about being put on another mailing list. What's different about that list compared to the clothing or gadgets catalogs list you're on because of a purchase someplace else? It's very easy to discard either kind of mailing if not interested. Just open your mail near a wastebasket as is recommended. I do; and the mail is quickly sorted.  |
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bookmark
Joined: 06 Nov 2007
Posts: 296
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| Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 11:49 am Post subject: |
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| Tee wrote: |
Pretty much my attitude. I laugh about being put on another mailing list. What's different about that list compared to the clothing or gadgets catalogs list you're on because of a purchase someplace else? It's very easy to discard either kind of mailing if not interested. Just open your mail near a wastebasket as is recommended. I do; and the mail is quickly sorted. |
Donation requests are not the same as clothing or catalog mailings to me because unfortunately, the former makes me a little guilty so I have to harden my heart. I'm not catholic, but darn, I might as well have been one because it's so easy for me to feel guilty about things. Well, I am assuming that guilt plays a big part with Catholics. Alas, I could be wrong, as I am about so many things. |
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Niftybergin
Joined: 27 Mar 2007
Posts: 1066
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| Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 2:38 pm Post subject: |
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| There's no mailing list in the world that can guilt me the way the ASPCA's commercials featuring Sarah McLachlan's song "Angel" can! All those suffering animals with their pleading eyes.... I have to change the channel or walk out of the room. Gah! |
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Nicole
Joined: 23 Apr 2007
Posts: 468
Location: Las Cruces, New Mexico
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| Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 5:02 pm Post subject: |
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That's why I like the Salvation Army. At Christmas I can drop a twenty in the little red tin outside of Walmart and walk away.
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LeeB.
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 1221
Location: Seattle, WA
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| Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 8:07 pm Post subject: |
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| Niftybergin wrote: | | There's no mailing list in the world that can guilt me the way the ASPCA's commercials featuring Sarah McLachlan's song "Angel" can! All those suffering animals with their pleading eyes.... I have to change the channel or walk out of the room. Gah! |
Yep, makes you want to adopt every single animal in the commercial.
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xina
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 6627
Location: minneapolis
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| Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 7:31 am Post subject: |
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| Niftybergin wrote: | | There's no mailing list in the world that can guilt me the way the ASPCA's commercials featuring Sarah McLachlan's song "Angel" can! All those suffering animals with their pleading eyes.... I have to change the channel or walk out of the room. Gah! |
I love animals with all my heart, but I change the channel. I just can't watch it. I pick and choose where to give...where to help. As for help for animals, I shop at Petsmart for dog and cat food and donate a couple dollars to various shelters in the area every time I shop there. I do what I can.
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Susan/DC
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
Posts: 1596
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| Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 11:57 am Post subject: |
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| Tee wrote: |
Pretty much my attitude. I laugh about being put on another mailing list. What's different about that list compared to the clothing or gadgets catalogs list you're on because of a purchase someplace else? It's very easy to discard either kind of mailing if not interested. Just open your mail near a wastebasket as is recommended. I do; and the mail is quickly sorted. |
Exactly. I sort the mail in the kitchen next to the garbage and just toss unopened the ads and requests for money from political/charitable organizations. I know that one source of income for these groups is the sale of their mailing lists, so I understand why when I give to Charity A I soon get a letter from Charity B.
What I find harder to turn down are the phone calls. I truly feel for the person at the other end of the line, as I know they have a job where they probably get cursed at, hung up on, and generally face a lot of rudeness each day. I usually decline to donate, but sometimes -- if it's a cause I support -- I wind up donating whereas the letter received just the other day from the same organization got tossed immediately. My sister, who works for the Humane Society, says that data support that: the return on mail is pretty low (although obviously something or they wouldn't send it) but the expense is relatively low. The return on phone calls is higher, but the corresponding expense is higher too.
P.S. I very, very rarely give cash (except for the Salvation Army). I have a cousin who worked for a charity that brought in a lot of cash and he said too much of it disappeared. Checks are safer and easier to track for tax purposes. |
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xina
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 6627
Location: minneapolis
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| Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 10:34 am Post subject: |
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| Susan/DC wrote: | [
What I find harder to turn down are the phone calls. I truly feel for the person at the other end of the line, as I know they have a job where they . |
This is one of the reasons we don't have a landline anymore. We only have our cell phones. Too many calls for carpet cleaning, house cleaning, chimney cleaning, donations to whatever charity...blah, blah, blah. I thought I would miss it, but not once I have wanted that line back.
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Susan/DC
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
Posts: 1596
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| Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 9:15 pm Post subject: |
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| xina wrote: |
This is one of the reasons we don't have a landline anymore. We only have our cell phones. Too many calls for carpet cleaning, house cleaning, chimney cleaning, donations to whatever charity...blah, blah, blah. I thought I would miss it, but not once I have wanted that line back. |
We're on the FTC "Do Not Call" list, so we don't get any more of the calls from commercial organizations trying to sell us something. Charities and political organizations are exempt, however, so those calls still come through, although not so many that we've given up the landline yet. |
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