I Hate It When I'm Charitable And......

OneEyedDiva

OneEyedDiva

SF VIP
Location
New Jersey
The charities keep sending me solicitations to donate more money. What's even worse is it seems to have put me on the lists of charities I never donated to! I'm a charitable person but it gets to be ridiculous. I have to take time to shred all that stuff. I made healthy donations to Feeding America twice this year yet I'm getting mail from them almost every week. I finally sent and request that they remove me from their list. I got another mailing this week, so called and found out they did receive my request but it takes 6 - 8 weeks for the mailings to stop. I've called other charities and told them I will no longer donate because of these nuisance solicitations.

There's a Muslim brother who is a family friend. His multi faceted agency feeds whoever lines up on Sunday evenings to get freshly cooked, hot meals complete with fruit salad and sometimes cake. The food is cooked at the masjid (mosque) I refer to below and they set up outdoors under tents at a more central location in town. They are out there no matter the weather. I donate to his agency a couple of times a year as well, but his agency doesn't send out those annoying mailings. I donate to St. Jude but 2 years ago started doing so via my brokerage that sends my RMDs directly to them, so I no longer get mailings from them either. There are two Islamic charities to which I donate my obligatory zakat (charity for poor Muslims). One is a local mosque, the other a foundation I found online which is highly rated by Charity Navigator. Neither bombards me with mailings.

Yesterday I got one with a nickel in it from a veterans organization. Sometimes I get calls for an alleged police benevolent organization. I tell them I don't donate to cold callers. Do you get a lot of solicitations from various charities?
 

I donated once to St. Jude's and get asked for more regularly. It's the same with my political party. I think it's good though since it keeps the Post Office workers employed.
 

Those solicitations are the worst and can quickly get way out of control. This happened with my stepfather. Up to 30-40 a day were coming in. Put a stop as fast as possible.

I've donated to cat rescue centers, local and one I watch their 24 hour live stream and also to bald eagle conservation.

I've learned to be very selective and keep it to smaller places after getting totally burned by Farm Sanctuary.
 
I donated to my political party. It appears that we are now friends for life. Every prominent party member wants to keep me informed of his goings on, and, BTW send cash. The most persistent solicitation is from the ACLU. I donated $10 in the 1990s -about 30 years ago, and like clockwork once a month there's a fat letter from them. A relative died of Alzheimer's, so i gave a donation in lieu of flowers. Then ,for about ten years my mailbox was filled with medical charity requests.
What irritates me is the charities spent more money sending me constant requests, which cost a heck of a lot more than the money I gave them.
Instead of doing good, the charities spent my donation asking for more money, so my donation put them in the hole.
 
I limit my donations to physical things such as food products, usable clothing items and my own time assisting at food banks etc. I make sure I donate any old blankets, sheets etc. to the local animal shelter. They love those items for their kennels. I never donate to charities that send me a solicitation via mail or phone. As mentioned, once you do, it can get out of hand quickly. I'm convinced many of these organizations have a reciprocity agreement where they share their mailing lists. I like to help out where I can but I don't like being harassed after the fact.
 
If I donate to a new charity, I use a slightly different name and tell them repeated requests and/or selling my name to other lists will mean they never get another donation from me. If my name were Jules Janice Jones, I might use J.J. Jones. It’s still good enough for my tax receipt. If I start getting requests from other charities in this name, none of them will get anything.

I also despise the waste of paper in these mailings. We can now make donations through an online site, Canada Helps. It’s an easy way to donate to small charities and the tax receipt is immediate. They do send requests via email when there’s a significant event happening. If it’s of no interest to me, I just delete it after reading the title.
 
I don’t donate.

I will see a woman with kids with a sign in front of a grocery store asking for donations. We take her into the store and tell her to buy what she needs and/or wants. No one has ever taken advantage of me in doing this.

I do this a couple times a year. I don’t have the income to do it more.

Occasionally, I give money to street people, but nOt very often as I consider that dangerous behavior, so I am careful to be around people and in a busy location.

I KNOW the people I give to actually get their donation. 😍
 
No solicitations and no donations to large organizations.

I used to donate but I got frustrated by how much money was IMO wasted on overhead, salaries, fund raising costs, etc...

These days I make a few small donations to local grassroots organizations. I like the fact that I can see first hand how the money is being used to improve life in my community.
 
@MrPants "I'm convinced many of these organizations have a reciprocity agreement where they share their mailing lists. I like to help out where I can but I don't like being harassed after the fact." I'm don't doubt that you are right because right after I donated to Feeding America, I got mailings from another "Feed people" organization.
 
There are thousands of sad animals in this country. Not abused. Not neglected. Just sad. They have homes and people who care about them, but they are sad. Call now and pledge a monthly gift to get these sad animals the help they need so very much. They want to live the happy life they deserve, research is ongoing, but there is hope for every sad animal. Help me help them wake up to a joyful new day, every day. Thank you so much for caring.
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Judycat said:
There are thousands of sad animals in this country. Not abused. Not neglected. Just sad. They have homes and people who care about them, but they are sad. Call now and pledge a monthly gift to get these sad animals the help they need so very much. They want to live the happy life they deserve, research is ongoing, but there is hope for every sad animal. Help me help them wake up to a joyful new day, every day. Thank you so much for caring.
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How the heck is a monthly donation going to help these animals be happier if they are already in loving, caring homes? You posted this as an example of a scam charity, right? BTW The kitten in the middle is so cute!
 
When my uncle passed, instead of buying cut flowers, I though the money I'd have spent on them would be put to better use making a charitable contribution to one listed in his obit. After that, I was inundated with snail mail asking for more money. They probably used all the money I sent to them in postage trying to get more. Eventually it stopped, but geez Louise, get on one of those mailing lists....
 
My elderly neighbour was inundated with letters from charities after making a donation eventually she stopped opening them, just wrote ‘No longer at this address, return to sender’ on the envelope and re-posted them
 
Yes, I think it's true these organizations use too much money to send solicitations. This seemed to be the fact when I tried to contact and lessen all those maddening and wasteful solicitations my stepfather was getting. I had the thought of some jerks in a basement, sending this stuff, paying themselves and using the rest of the money for making and sending more solicitations. Benefiting no one in need really.
 
Oh Gosh yes I do.
I totally understand your frustration, it drives me nuts.
After my sister died 3 years ago I had the task of letting the charities she donated know that she had passed and there would be no donations coming from her, I was stupid enough to give them my address, email, and phone number, they have been bombarding me with requests ever since.
Just the other day I received a call from a charity I have never heard of before asking me for my credit card to make a donation.
Needless to say, I hung up on them and blocked their number.
 
Doesn't it seem like there is a "ringmaster" out there broadcasting "OK, we have a live one, he is interested in environmental issues, food banks, ......... " lets fill up his mail box.

At this point, it seems like 75% of the stuff in my mail box is requests for money and often from organizations I have never heard of. It has become a real nuisance and everything that I have tried to do to stop it and save them money has failed.
 
I went to the big city today, I was stopped by a young fellow asking for money.
I told him that I wouldn't give him money to spend on drugs or booze, then I asked him if he was hungry, he said he was.
So about ten minutes later I went back to him with a beefburger and a carton of tea, he smiled and woofed the lot. :)
 
I occasionally donate to the rescue mission and I'm in the process of donating my van to Wheels for Wishes. They will auction it off and use that money for the Make a Wish kids. I too don't mind donating when I can afford to but also don't like being inundated with requests every week. I know they're in need but I find it to be rude.
 
I give to certain charities when I'm able to and want to. I have the same issue of receiving constant spam via regular mail by these organizations. I will donate again in the future, when I want to, easy enough to do without their pressuring me on a regular basis.

I currently give to ASPCA with automatic donation monthly. A few are Red Cross, St. Jude, DAV, local food banks and rescue missions, animal and conservation organizations. I don't shred this spam, just throw it out in the trash. I also get regular calls from cops asking for donations, I tell them I'm not interested.

My mother in law has been deceased for over twenty years, but she and her husband lived with us for the last years of their lives, we still get spam mail from the American Heart Association for her, despite my contacting them years ago letting them know she is deceased. :rolleyes:
 

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