It feels good to give to charities, especially ones that you know are legitimate and do things in keeping with your philosophies on how to make positive change in the world.
The problem is, charities don’t know when to stop asking you for money.
Once you contribute anything to a charity, they automatically send you an acknowledgment and enclose another form to send more money. Sometimes mailings come 2-3 a week. People don’t even get salaries weekly anymore (folks I know get bi-weekly pay, and then it’s direct deposit).
Just once I’d like to receive a mailing like this:
“Thank you for sending your $– check for our cause. We used your donation to help ——- with their ——-. They would not have gotten —— without your generosity. Next month —— will need our help with ——. We look forward to contacting you then, and hope you can provide another donation to help them. Meanwhile, enjoy the rest of your month, knowing you have helped somebody.”
And what about the infamous anonymous person who will match every dollar contributed with two of their own? Just give the charity the darn money: you don’t have to tell us about it, even if it was given by the greatest humanitarian on the planet. Just use what you’re given.
The other thing that bugs me about begging mail is the guilt trip brought on by the gift items they enclose hoping you will feel obligated to “pay” for them. I have enough pseudo-metal key chains to outfit a locksmith shop, more address labels than the most prolific letter writer could use in a lifetime, and enough scratch pads and greeting cards that I feel the senders must be solely responsible for deforestation.
If everybody gave a penny to 100 charitable causes, those causes would have all the money they would need for a lot of good deeds. Think about one penny, given by millions of people,a nd what good it could do. It’s just like my philosophy that the lottery would do better to give 350 people one million dollars than give one person 350 million dollars, but that’s for another topic.
Anyway, I recycle all the junk mail from over-eager charities, and I give when I can. That’s the idea: if you have it to spare, give it. Just don’t push the issue.
Susan's Scribblings the Blog 
Charities: Mail I’d Like to Get
Posted at 2:39 am by kayewer, on April 3, 2011
It feels good to give to charities, especially ones that you know are legitimate and do things in keeping with your philosophies on how to make positive change in the world.
The problem is, charities don’t know when to stop asking you for money.
Once you contribute anything to a charity, they automatically send you an acknowledgment and enclose another form to send more money. Sometimes mailings come 2-3 a week. People don’t even get salaries weekly anymore (folks I know get bi-weekly pay, and then it’s direct deposit).
Just once I’d like to receive a mailing like this:
“Thank you for sending your $– check for our cause. We used your donation to help ——- with their ——-. They would not have gotten —— without your generosity. Next month —— will need our help with ——. We look forward to contacting you then, and hope you can provide another donation to help them. Meanwhile, enjoy the rest of your month, knowing you have helped somebody.”
And what about the infamous anonymous person who will match every dollar contributed with two of their own? Just give the charity the darn money: you don’t have to tell us about it, even if it was given by the greatest humanitarian on the planet. Just use what you’re given.
The other thing that bugs me about begging mail is the guilt trip brought on by the gift items they enclose hoping you will feel obligated to “pay” for them. I have enough pseudo-metal key chains to outfit a locksmith shop, more address labels than the most prolific letter writer could use in a lifetime, and enough scratch pads and greeting cards that I feel the senders must be solely responsible for deforestation.
If everybody gave a penny to 100 charitable causes, those causes would have all the money they would need for a lot of good deeds. Think about one penny, given by millions of people,a nd what good it could do. It’s just like my philosophy that the lottery would do better to give 350 people one million dollars than give one person 350 million dollars, but that’s for another topic.
Anyway, I recycle all the junk mail from over-eager charities, and I give when I can. That’s the idea: if you have it to spare, give it. Just don’t push the issue.
Share this:
Related
Author: kayewer