We give to animal causes and have never had anyone call. They mail solicitations, but nothing beyond that.

Send them a note and say that if they continue to contact you, you will no longer donate to them at all. Find someplace else that needs your help.

I donate to two causes. I only donate once a year, but get many requests throughout the year. It is annoying and I don't really need any more address labels etc. and I do feel guilty keeping this stuff without donating.

Often when I donate...I black out my address on the check and then
they don't bother me.

My husband and I went through the same thing with the Salvation Army. I was on them so much to make them quit sending, they sent my husband a sympathy card on my death. LOL I had to call their top officer and he said, "Oh they wouldn't do that". I said they did, Why would I lie about something like that and I want my donation bills stopped now". They stopped. We were going to donate every Christmas, but we stopped. Didn't want that to start up again.

3 years ago I went to a hospital in St. Louis to have nerve repair surgery. Less than one month later I received a solicitation letter from them. The letters kept coming until I returned the letter to them with "Please remove my name from your mailing list" written on it.
Almost 2 years ago, I was treated in the ER at Stanford for an infected finger. Just yesterday, I received another solicitation letter from them.
Why would I want to donate to hospitals far from home when there is a wonderful hospital 3 blocks from my house?

Times are tough and the charities are not getting much money from donations so they are just trying to stay alive.
It is annoying but a fact of life.

I take stuff to the Bethesda Gently Used Store because the stores are run by volunteers and except for the rent and utilities it goes where it ts suppose to go. I take things that I could sell, but this is a way to help them. I took 15 dolls to them one time and they sold them right away for $15. each. Pretty good donation.

Sometimes I think if these charities would spend less on mailings, they'd have a lot more to put towards their cause.

yes, I did the same a few years ago. A major contribution to a cycling outfit. Now, I get requests for money all the time.

But, I just delete/file them in file 13. There is no way, they get more from me. PERIOD.

Moni

Look up some of these organizations on "charity navigator" and you will see what a small percentage of the donation actually goes to the groups they solicit for.

I try to give only locally to groups I am familiar with.

"I don't like to be bugged! I just said not at this time do I want to make a commitment. "

IF you truly don't want to be bugged by phone calls, tell them to put you on their do not call list.

When my Mom died in 2009 I was the executor of her estate. After the memorial funds were given to their desired places we had a small amount left over. Some people do not specify their preference. My sister remembered her seeing about St. Jude's on TV and saying she wished she had something to send to them. Well, she did but that's another story. So, I send the remaining money to St. Jude's under the "Jane Doe" Memorial. She kept getting letters, her name, my address. One day my cell phone rang and someone asked for my Mom. I told them she had passed away and they said Oh, I'm sorry is there anyone else I can talk to? I said No and hung up. Now, how did they get my cell phone number? Both of our cell phones are in my husbands name. We have no house phone.

Didn't say but the phone call was from St. Jude's. Good charity anyway.

I'm thinking about your question, "Why more and more?" I wonder if there are more Seniors (with money), and it's easier to wheedle money from them, er, us. Or they THINK we're push-overs. Do we know if younger family members are being solicited at the same rate?

We are on every 'do not solicit' list, but still get calls from various charities. My standard reply is, "I'm sorry, but your cause is not one of the charities we support. Calling here is a waste of time. Please put us on your 'do not call' list. Good-bye."

I know I'm wasting my breath, as the callers are getting paid to make X number of calls, with commissions for donations obtained, but *I* feel better. LOL

I hate to jinx this, but I haven't heard from the infamous "Rachel" with the CC insurance company for weeks! I listened to her whole message and got the option to "Press X if you do not wish to be contacted again." Who knew?

If you "Press X if you do not wish to be contacted again." then you are put on a sucker list and will get a lot more calls. It means that you actually listened to the whole message and followed instructions, therefore you are a sucker.

Hang up immediately when you know the call isn't from your friend or Aunt Addie.

We donated to Idaho Special Olympics for years and years. They will never get another dime from us due to their overly aggressive,incessant phone calls and flyers when I apologetically informed them one year that we wouldn�t be able to donate that year. Hell, we were worried about keeping the lights on at that point. Then they kept sending me letters with donation coupons thanking me for agreeing to send them 50.00. Over and over and over again.

Sushipup -- Oh, NUTS! And I thought it had stopped the calls! Seriously thinking of ditching our land line; don't get these calls on my cell.

No, no sucker list. It is a law that they have to remove your name and not call you again if you ask them to take it off. You can even stop the cell phone telemarketers by replying with STOP. It has always worked for me. If they don't stop report them. There was an article in our local paper that two large companies are being investigated for not obeying the do not call list law. that should show them the government means business regarding telemarketers.

Yup, here's my source.

Here is a link that might be useful: What not to do when you get a robocall

I don't get many calls since we are on a do not call list. But the credit report calls keep coming. Once I listened and it said press 6 if you don't want anymore calls. I did and the calls kept coming. Son says they know you listened when you pressed 6. So now I say hello and in a nano second if there is no response, I hang up.

I did press the stop on the calls from our dear friend Rachel..they have stopped.

My entire career was doing fund raising for non-profit organizations. I am having a good laugh at some of these comments. Of course when you give money to an org, they are going to ask for more. Once you have "raised your hand" you become a top prospect for more donations.

Once you give to one organization, they sell your name and address to other organizations. When I worked for a large non-profit in the city, we exchanged donor lists with other non-profits in the city. We got lots of new donors from these lists.

My advice is to decide what orgs you want to support and give to them only, not to every charity that sends you a letter or calls you. If they send you a penny, or mailing labels or a calendar, it is a gift to you and you have no obligation to give. Don't feel guilted into giving.

You would not believe what goes on behind the scenes. I recommend that you take all the reply cards from solicitation letters that you don't intend to support and write "do not mail" or "please take me off your list" on the card and mail it back in the envelope provided. (you wouldn't believe what people mail back in those envelopes!)

I also agree that Charity Navigator is a good resource. My mom was giving to two orgs that supposedly provide services to WWII vets. It turns out that only 20 percent of the money raised actually went to programs. All the rest went to salaries and admin costs. They aren't getting anything else from her.

I actually have a letter on my desk from a nursing home hundreds of miles from here that has sent me solicitations several times a year ever since I sent a donation in memory of sisters MIL who died yeeears ago.

I know they are a very caring place and hate that they are wasting their money to send expensive brochures, etc.--all including a plea and an envelope.

Hoping I can reach someone there to remove me from their list.

There is no way to stop Robo calls unless you asked to speak to someone and tell that person to take you off the list. Live calls and cell calls you can stop. I do it every time and never get a second call except for the cell. They will reply with something like "you name has been removed".

The Best and Worse Charities!

Interesting Information

(Not mentioned in this list but a couple of years ago, the head of the Canadian cancer society was making $650,000.
Also, does the Heart & Stroke Foundation and the Cancer Society really need to send a glossy magazine full of pictures to every household? How much of the donated dollars was spent on those magazines which, after a few
minutes of being read, go into the recycle bin?)

Some interesting stats in this message.
The Terry Fox organization Contributes $0.83 for every dollar raised to cancer research. The Canadian Cancer Society $0.22 for every dollar raised. Admin costs for the Terry Fox Run is low because much of the admin costs are taken by many volunteers.
$0.17 is used for run promotion and supplies. Every person organizing managing takes all expense other than the run donor sheets and some signage to cover signage that is not recyclable
Do you know that the CEO of Shriners�the Imperial Potentate, makes $0.00 per year. How about that for a salary? There are 22 hospitals helping kids in Canada , the USA and in Mexico . His salary is matched by the
Provincial Potentates income which is also $0.00 per year. So the next time you see a Shriner in a "Mall" selling whatever, give generously.
Ever wonder where that donation money goes?
Keep these facts in mind when "donating". As you open your pockets for yet another natural disaster, keep the following facts in mind; we have listed them from the highest (worse paid offender) to the lowest(least paid offender).

The worst offender was yet again for the 11th year in a row is, UNICEF - CEO, receives $1,200,000 per year, (plus use of a Rolls Royce for his exclusive
use where ever he goes, and an expense account that is rumored to be well over $150,000.) Only pennies from the actual donations goes to the UNICEF
cause (less than $0.14 per dollar of income).

The second worst offender this year is Marsha J. Evans, President and CEO of the AmericanRedCross... for her salary for the year ending in 2009 was
$651,957 plus expenses. Enjoys 6 weeks - fully paid holidays including all related expenses during the holiday trip for her and her husband and kids including 100% fully paid health & dental plan for her and her family,
for life. This means out of every dollar they bring in, about $0.39 goes to related charity causes.

The third worst offender was again for the 7th time was, Brian Gallagher, President of the United Way receives a $375,000 base salary (U. S.funds),plus so many numerous expense benefits it's hard to keep track as to what it is all worth, including a fully paid lifetime membership for 2 golf courses
(1 in Canada , and 1 in the U. S. A. ), 2 luxury vehicles, a yacht club membership, 3 major company gold credit cards for his personal expenses...and so on.
This equates to about $0.51 per dollar of income goes to charity causes.

Fourth worst offender who was also again in the fourth spot, for every year since this information has been made available from the start 1998is amazingly
yet again, World Vision President ( Canada ) receives $300,000 base salary,(plus supplied - a home valued in the $700,000 - $800,000 dollar value range, completely
furnished, completely paid all housing expenses, including taxes,water/sewer,telephone/fax, HD/high speed cable, weekly maid service and pool/yard maintenance, fully
paid private schooling for his children, upscale automobile and an $55,000 personal expense account for clothing/food,with a $125,000 business expense
account). Get this, because it is a "religious based" charity, it pays, little to no taxes, can receive government assistance and does not have to declare where the money goes. Only about $0.52 of earned income per dollar is available for charity causes.
Of the sixty some odd "charities" we looked at, the lowest paid President/C.EO/Commissioner) was heading up a charity group in Canada . We found, believe it or not, it was...

Ready for this...

I think you might be surprised...

It is none other than...

The Salvation Army's Commissioner Todd Bassett receives a salary of only $13,000 per year (plus housing) for managing this $2 Billion dollar organization. Which means about $0.93 per dollar earned,is readily available and goes back out to local charity causes... truly
amazing��and well done "Sally Anne".

No further comment is necessary..."Think Twice" before you give to your Charity of choice as to which one really does the best for the most or the least for the most, for that matter. Remember charity starts at home. Let's
look after the people of this country.

99% of people probably won't forward this.I just did!

It is better to be informed than not!!!

We don't give to national/international organizations. Our gifts are to local (Chicagoland) charities -- only after we've read their financial statements. We give primarily to groups that assist *humans* (not animals) with *documented financial need*. Our charities provide *basic human needs*: Food, Clothing, Shelter, and Medical Care (including hospice and mental health).

I do not understand why people pass by the deserving needy under their noses while giving to an organization that supposedly aids 'the children of XYZ' or whatever purported cause far, far away -- or why people put animals ahead of people in their giving. Do they assume 'somebody else' is caring for the hungry homeless poor living within a few miles of their doors?

Chisue, I agree. I know this will not be popular, but there are so many people around here who are so busy saving cats and dogs, and supporting those orgs, while human needs, especially children, are overlooked.

Look for local children's charities where you can see what they are doing rather than Save the Children, etc. It's been my experience that local groups are doing a much better job of using your charitable dollars well. The plight of foster children is heartbreaking, esp after the age out of the system.

I only support local groups. My university is also local, but if they were not, I would still support them.

Even when I have asked for no solicitations after my donation, they still come. I figure that eventually my entire donation will be used up in costs associated with solicitations.
Charity Navigator is a good site to use which explains what percentage is actually given to the cause by each charity listed.

I once gave $500 to ST. Judes and the mailings began asking for more. They kept sending useless things including little medallions etc. that I felt were of no need to me and a careless way to spend donated money so I asked to be removed from their list. They did which was fine by me.

We have a NO telephone solicitation policy in our house. If they call we say (3 times) "we will not give to telephone solicitors and please take this number off your calling list". We're on the "Do not call" registry, but calls still get through. More and more we only give locally. Fundraising is big business and the dollars spent to send out carefully crafted letters with low-cost inserts to entice you to give bring good returns to the charities. I always consult Charity Navigator before I give. Or I'll do a Google search for their most recently filed tax return to scrutinize their use of funds.

Many people are confused by similar sounding charity names. As a farmer (but non-livestock producer) I'm well aware that HSUS (Humane Society of the United States) is very anti-ag; however many people confuse it with the Humane Society.
Here are 2 sources touting the misleading efforts of HSUS and their use of donations.

http://www.dailynebraskan.com/opinion/geis-humane-society-of-the-us-has-backward-priorities-1.2411777#.UBWwr_VLPu0

Excerpt from Daily Nebraskan "Despite all of the money HSUS spends on political campaigns, the group's number one expenditure is itself. According to its 2009 IRS Form 990, the not-for-profit group tax form, HSUS had a revenue of $101.6 million, and spent $35.8 million on salaries and benefits, $2.6 million on pensions, and $22.3 million on advertising. Grants to actual humane societies were less than two percent. According to Atlanta's ABC affiliate WSB-TV, HSUS collected $34 million after Hurricane Katrina supposedly for animal shelters, however only $7 million actually went to that cause. The rest went back to HSUS as "expenses." If you are more interested in seeing how HSUS spends its money, check out humanewatch.org."

http://www.humanewatch.org/index.php/site/post/consumer_alert/