Why I’m never giving to a charity again.

It all started when I sent the March of Dimes $15 because I rather liked the address labels they kept sending me. I had some extra money and I thought it would be a good thing to give to a good cause.

A month or so later, I got some more address labels, a little pad of paper with my name on it, and another request for money. And then the flood began.

In the space of the last two months, I have received solicitations, address labels, and calendars from the Red Cross, Association for the Blind, Salvation Army, March of Dimes, Breast Cancer Society, the American Cancer Society, the Nature Conservatory, and every other charity I could possible get mail from. I have even received email from Cottage Living magazine soliciting a specific charity.

I will not be sending them any money. I don’t have money to send. What began as a gesture of goodwill has ballooned into irritation, since I will be moving in less than two weeks (god willing) and all those address labels will be for naught.

When the March of Dimes sold my address to other charities, they lost any chance of ever getting more money from me. And they received my scorn.

I’m sure they all do good work. But this deluge is irritating and crass, belying their ‘charity’ backgrounds.

Maybe if they stopped printing the calendars and notebooks and address labels, they’d have enough money to function for a while without donations. Because they’re not getting any more money from me.

Comments

Unknown said…
Yeah. We encountered the same thing, too, when we donated to a local radio station. Sometimes I'm tempted to write "No longer at this address" on the new solicitations but usually just toss it in the recycle bin.

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