I’ve had my years of being broke and massively in debt. But, thanks to some combination of luck, hard work and persistence, I’m happy to be financially stable today and able to make a certain amount of charitable contributions the last few years.
And no one who knows me will be surprised to find I handle my charitable contributions in a fairly regular and anal-retentive fashion. Every December (the end of the tax year) I look at my total income for the year and decide how much I can afford to give. Then I spend some time researching various organizations and causes that are near and dear to my heart, investigating how much of the money goes to paying staff salaries and overhead. After making final selections, I write the checks, mail them off and save a note in my tax folder for the coming year. Easy.
What seems to inevitably follow over the coming year is that I get bombarded with snailmail on the order of two a week. “We appreciated your contribution to our hospital. Now we’ve lost our lease and need an another $220,000 from our contributors to get a new location.” “We’re using your contribution to fight those rascals in congress, but have you seen this latest bill in committee? We need your help now more than ever.” “Thank you for donating so generously to the Humane Society in December. Now give us more money or we’ll shoot this dog.” I can’t help but feel resentful as I get repeatedly panhandled by these groups throughout the following year. It’s like I once bought a beer for a guy in a bar and now every time he sees me I get hit up again.
Next year, every check I send will be accompanied by the following letter:
Please find enclosed a check for $XXX, my charitable contribution to your organization for 2003.
Please note: if I get a single solicitation for additional contributions over the next 11 months, this will be the last check you’ll ever get from me.
Regards,
What do you think? Am I becoming a curmudgeon in my old age?
I completely agree with you. I have also heard of organizations that will start calling you as well. They clearly generate enough through those letters to make them worthwhile, but clearly it won’t happen for you. They’re better off using the cost of supplies and time to their cause.
Heh. I am a professional fundraiser at the moment (kindof an accident). Anyway, most organizations do two direct mail campaigns per year. A couple do three. This is not so much because they think you will give 3x per year as that most people give once a year but not necessarily at the same time each year, and it’s hard to keep track of each person and know when they give and if it is always at the same time each year.
If you support the work of wherever you are donating to enough, then I would just bear with the fact that they have to do these mailouts in order to remind their other donors that they should give. If it really bothers you, you should be able to specify with your donation that you do NOT wish to be on their mailing list at all which should solve the problem. Also, I would heartily suggest that you ask that your name not be “traded’ to other non-profits- that’s how you get all the other mail.
Good luck!
The EFF is the only group I’ve ever sent a donation which did not repay me by assaulting my mailbox with solicitations. Some of my contributions were worth far less than the amount of money spent in the subsequent year to get me to send more money. It turned me off completely to those organizations, and I haven’t given a dime since. It is unfortunate that otherwise worthy causes don’t grasp that their constant requests undermine their very purpose. I wholeheartedly agree with your idea, and I intend to follow suit.
Of course I think you are a curmudgeon, but I think your curmudgeonhood has nothing to do with the barrage of junk mail unleashed by your innocent donations. I also was annoyed by the constant stream of begging snail mails, so now I give cash locally. I walk into Planned Parenthood and hand the mystified receptionist some grubby old crumpled up money and escape while he’s still trying to smooth it out. I do like the idea of sending the form letter with the check, though.
1. I adore the word curmudgeon, and I use it at every opportunity.
2. As the catepillar once said “Who are you?”
3. Why are ‘you’ on my “friend of” list?