I want to give some money away.
I do not want to give my money to people who will use it to send me more solicitations for money.
I’ve given money to various causes down through the years, most often having to do with setting aside trees and habitat for animals, but occasionally for other causes, too. I’m no major philanthropist, by any means, but I’ve helped diverse causes, often in the name of biodiversity.
The problem is, when I write the check and send off the form in its preaddressed envelope, it seems to meet other little envelopes somewhere in the mail and propagate, as if the missives were actually lusty males and not simple solicitous mail.
This was not the kind of biodiversity I’d had in mind.
I often look at the solicitations I get, around this time of year, and think about who to give some money. I like picking. I do not necessarily prefer to give it to some bigger fund like Working Assets and let them distribute, although I do have my long-distance service with them and like them, generally, as an organization.
No, I’d prefer to select the ones I want to contribute to, and to mail funds off on my own. There was one group I liked that helped women in the developing world with too many kids. With children already under- and malnourished, they didn’t want more kids but wanted to keep their husbands around — which, for many of them, meant more kids.
So that group helped them with their birth control options. As the world has a surplus of people, I’m all for increasing biodiversity through population control.
But I’m afraid writing a check will just mean more solicitation propagation. I suppose I could put cash in the envelopes and send it off, but that seems a bit risky.
I could do money orders. How much would that be, per order? Seems a waste. I’ve thought of opening a checking account with only minimal personal info — sans address, and seeing how that works.
Last year I actually took their forms and wrote nice little notes to five or six of them telling them I’d give them money if they would agree not to fill my mailbox with more tree pulp.
I didn’t hear back from a single one.
So now it’s two years since I’ve contributed to any, and I know there are some orangutans out there to be saved, some habitat to be set aside, and some trees to be hugged. Just not sent to me pulped and inked.
Any thoughts on a solution?
I’ve been trying to figure this one out too. Every donation creates an avalanche of future solicitations. I’ve written e-mails saying stop wasting resources asking for more – I will give what I can when I can and it really bothers me when the main purpose of a charity seems to be to propoge itself.
Well, I don’t know what the solution is. Direct contributions on a local level (food banks, homeless shelters) or time not money? Maybe “anonymous” wasn’t a woman, just someone trying to avoid excessive mail.
You could try giving away your donations in non-monetary forms. Take the money that you would give in check form and instead buy a bag of groceries to give to the local food bank. Or, buy a bunch of teenager friendly gift certificates to donate to your local homeless service provider, Alameda Point Collaborative gets tons of toys for children during the holidays but often teenagers are overlooked. Additionally many homeless shelters for single adults (or adults with children) like Midway Shelter often appreciate adult friendly gifts like toiletries and gift certificates to movies and whatnot for birthdays and holidays as well.
Or you can just donate money online. Many organizations will have mechanisms to donate on-line, if your organization of choice does not, well http://www.justgive.org has a host of organizations that do. The worst that you might get is some e-mail spam.
While I don’t know if this will solve your future solicitations issue, one way of checking out whether or not your donation is just going to fund more solicitations, is to check out your charity through Charity Navigator (http://www.charitynavigator.org/). They rate charities on how effective they are in distributing the contributions to the worthy cause and not just to their fund-raising division.
Personally, I’ve found if I donate online it cuts down on the snail mail I get. Sure, I’m on the spam list for the charity I’ve donated to, but an email solicitation is much cheaper and easier to manage than a piece of snail mail.
I have worked in this industry, fundraising for charity for many years and I can say, the experience has taught me that the best way to act charitably is directly. I never respond to solicitations, whilst most are legitimate it is impossible to tell them from the dodgy scams which abound in the industry nor is it possible to tell how much of the money reaches those in need. Plant a tree, volunteer, help out a local.
Sorry for being unresponsive, this cold really knocked me for a loop — so it has been all I can do to get half of what I had hoped done over the weekend.
Bosquechica, good to see I’m not alone in this, and I agree about direct action.
Lauren, you take this notion a step further, with a number of great suggestions. Thanks; I do know someone who volunteers at Midway (not too far from where I live, and I believe close to you, too) and was set to donate a bunch of clothes and other goods to her, but she had to cancel due to some crisis at the shelter.
I ned to check into online donations — that might work.
LazyBuddhist — thanks for the excellent link. This is exactly what I’m talking about, and I’ll check it out. Sounds like I need to get with the 21st century and do more online donations.
Gingatao — that’s good advice all. The thing is, as my priorities are nature, wildlife, and habitat to promote diversity, much of the local needs are reasonably well addressed (northern California may lack some things, but liberals with environmental consciousness is not high on the list).
Very interesting that you’ve worked in the industry. I’d be curious to hear what it was like — will check out your site.
Lazy beat me to it. I would use Pay Pal and donate online. Less personal info, no wasted trees.
It’s a bizarre conundrum, trying to outwit a charity as you help it.