Discussion about charities

mookiemeister

mookiemeister

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Hi,

I want to start a discussion about charities. Do you guys ever get mail from different charities? A while ago I got some mail and I donated a little money. Afterward, I started getting flood of mails from all types of charities asking for money. I donated some money to charities I thought is good. After that, I started getting a lot of mails from charities that included 'gifts' in the mail. Stuff like stuffed animal, pen, mailing labels, holiday cards, pendants, etc... It got so ridiculous how much stuff they sent, I just throw everything out and not send them any money to discourage them from wasting donated money on those 'gifts'. After that, they started calling my phone number. I don't even know how they got my phone number. But apparently they got some fancy computer that can automatically dial my phone number and I get calls at all hours of the day. When I pick up the phone, it would be computers that answer it.

Has anyone else have similar experiences with charities as me? Before, I donated the money to some charities because I thought their cause is worthwhile. But now that they are using my money to buy those 'gifts' to send back to me (and probably to other people), and also buying those fancy automatic phone dialer machine to call me, I'm thinking I might cut back on the money I donated to them so they are not put to waste like this.

Please feel free to add any comment. I would be interested to hear your thought on this topic.

Thanks!
 
Are you on the do no call registry? Though I think true charities may be exempt from that.

I wouldn't think a major one (like Red Cross) would share a list of donors with other charities? Personally, I'd never donate to a charity as a result of an unsolicited communication. (mail, phone call, whatever) I think I've heard that the companies they outsource those calls to actually end up getting most of the donation money you make through the call anyway. (Not sure if that is BS or not, but I'd just wait and donate outside of a marketing call even if I did want to give to that org.)

Before giving to a charity you should make sure they are designated a 501c3 organization by the IRS. Even if you don't itemize, checking that should be a good indicator of if they are legit or not. If they aren't they might still be a good charity (I think?), but you'd have to do more digging.
 
I'm on the do-not-call list but they still call me. Some are from charities that I've donated before via mail and some I haven't donated before. It's actually a little creepy that they are now calling me up. How did they find my phone number from my donation from mail? I always donate by writing my check. But there is no phone number on the check.
 
If you have a listed number I'd guess they could get it from your name and address. Pretty shitty to pass a list of donors around to other charities.

If it's the same ones calling all of the time just say "Please do not call me again." and I believe they have to honor that, charity or not.
 
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