I had that same problem years ago when I made the mistake of mailing some donations to a couple of organizations. I found out they must have passed my info onto everyone. Perhaps they even sold their mailing lists. I worked at notifying all of them that I would no longer be making 'any' donations via mail, as I had chosen to make all my donations locally. I asked that they please remove my name and address from all mailing lists so as to not waste their donation seeking budget, seeking future donations from me.

I do still donate to and belong to a couple of things, but have asked that they not disclose my information in any way. So far, they have kept my info private.

I counted how many requests I received in one months time, and multiplied it by 12, and came up that on average I was receiving over 700 donation requests per year! That was a lot of $$ being wasted, imho, requesting donations from just me.

I kept a folder of who I had contacted and when. If my request was ignored for 6-8 weeks or longer, I then used the postage paid envelopes and contacted them again. I stuffed all of the literature back in the postage paid envelopes and wrote on it that I had requested 8 weeks prior that my name and address be removed from all mailing lists.

World Wildlife Fund was the absolutely worst to get stopped.

Eventually everything got stopped. I did the same thing at getting all catalogs stopped.

I now have minimal junk mail.

Sue

One of my friends made a point of using a different middle initial each time she signed up for something. She kept track of which initial belonged to which organization, so she could see who were the worst offenders in selling her information. I thought that was brilliant, but I don't have the drive to do it.

I find it appalling how much money goes into these mailings. Plus, it kills me to think about how many people throw them in the trash, instead of recycling. That's a lot of paper.

Yes, they do sell their mailing lists, and they also hire outside companies to do the fund raising for them.

I send money to local charities that work in my local community, like the local branch of the Salvation Army (in memory of my father, it was his favorite charity), the local food bank and soup kitchen and Meals on Wheels. And I only send to the local groups, not the national.

If you don't have a local address, your money leaves your community forever.

Same problem as Chemocurl. We finally stopped opening the charities with address lables too. Now we mainly give to local charities and a few state wide that WE have choosen.
I've sent back lots of junk mail with 'no longer available' on the side.

Marie it is sad that so many resorces are wasted. I suppose they catch quite a few this way. It still steams me though.

Several years ago I received a "beg" letter form a certain group, and there was a real nickel included. I don't remember now how they used the nickle to try to convince me to donate.

I replied to them and told them that my first thought was to return the nickle. Then I went on to remind them of how many of these type letters get trashed, not even opened, and their nickles were just being completely lost, and so I was keeping the nickle because I thought I could make better use of it than they did. The nickle went into the collection plate at church along with my offering.

Never heard from them again!

Sue

All money I receive like those nickles, go into a special jar and that along with found money go to the red kettles at Chrismas.

There was a tsunami that caused huge devastation in the south-west Pacific and the Indian Ocean, what, about three years ago?

Dozens of villages, even some cities, were almost destroyed.

There have been recent earthquakes in Turkey, Pakistan and China that caused huge devastation in those limited areas, as well.

Millions in southern Sudan are being kicked out of their area, their villages burned, because another ethnic group wants the oil that lies under their land, and many of the Masai herders, whose cattle are their wealth, are finding their cattle dying due to ongoing droughts in their area, the expansion of the Sahara.

They were so much poorer than we are, even before they were overwhelmed by the disaster.

"In God we trust" is found on some currency ... in case there may be a God ...does God care less for them than for us?

It is not an easy task, separating the wheat from the chaff ... but, for some who claim to be religious, aren't we exhorted to be hard headed ... and soft-hearted. Don't the Christians claim that that was the way that Christ was?

Good wishes for finding the important/worthwhile ways in life.

ole joyful

P.S. I agree that I find the interminable amd multiple requests for support somewhat off-putting ... and if they gave some worthwhile and specific information about what they've been doing lately, I'd find their messages somewhat less so.

Many - including my churches - ask me to agree to monthly automatic contributions, and I've told several that I refuse ... for, should there be inadequate funds on hand to cover the $10.00 (or whatever) per month, for three of them ...

... 3 X $35.00 mounts up to $105.00 - which is what my bank will charge for three dishonoured cheques or preauthourized remittances.

No ... thank ... you!!

That said, I don't like the standing outside the door of the food store selling overpriced chocolate bars, to support some charity that I've never heard of ... but I explain my position courteously to the practitioner, for my quarrel is not with him/her.

o j

O.J., I did send money to various organizations that did international disaster relief. But the current economy is affecting so many local families, that I cringe to think that people live on the streets here in my county, families with children are sleeping in their cars, kids don't have presents (one of the local fire departments collects for that), and of course, many people who are going hungry.

I try to keep my money working to help people in my own community.

And OJ, there's a group who wear white 'uniforms' and stand outside the grocery store sometimes. The newspaper did an expose (they need to run the story again) and found that it's not a registered charity, but a large extended family who claim their own church and are not affiliated with any recognized denomination, and the money goes to their own 'charity'. That's a scam.

Another scam are the two national animal "rights" groups. The money they collect goes to ads supporting their extreme vegan beliefs and anti-domesticated animal views, and not a penny goes to help local shelters or local spay-neuter clinics. They are guilty of the worst in deceptive advertising, IMHO.

Yes, keep the disasters in the world in mind when you donate your hard-earned money. But also volunteer at the Food Bank and the Soup Kitchen, and know the need right in your own hometown.

I donate to St. Jude's and Susan Komen. I donate generously. It seems better to be generous to 2 than donate meagerly to many. I think both organizations are worthy and have my support.

I support several local relief, educational, social, health and service agencies ... as well as half a dozen churches with which I've had connection, over the years.

I wrote a thread here a week or so ago showing how many of us could get more mileage out of our contributed dollars.

Now that the whole 67 pages are available again, we can find that post, though I don't have time to seek it out now, and have had total failure in using "Search" here ... plus, as I use dialup, it takes a long time for messages to load.

Sorry I can't provide a link at present - will see if I can do it later, if someone else hasn't in the meantime.

May God bless you ... and help you offer a blessing to many, whether local or in distant places.

ole joyful

The more I learn about "charities" and the "entitlements" of the people responsible for the organizations - the less I want to donate to any of them. I've learned that even those who state are solely run by volunteers have a way of compensating themselves very, very well.

Sorry - didn't mean to start a new thread - only add to yours so I'm trying again.

When I found out that 50 people in my area had thier fares, hotel rooms and all the goodies that went with it paid for by the Cancer Society for a Convention which was held 1500 miles from here, that was the last cent they got from me.
I was told if you needed help you had to ask for it. How generous of them!
Dolly

What do you do with all those stickum address labels
that are sent to you by multiple organizations wanting you to pay for them? I have recieved more than I could possibly use in a lifetime.

I do not feel inclined to take the trouble to return them or shread them, but I do not want all those labels with my information in the garbage.

There is a stack of them in my desk now.

Soxxxx, in a conversation with friends a while back, we were talking about how we are all getting on in years and kinda wondering how long we would live.

I told them I intend to live long enough to use up all those address labels I am sent! ;0)

Sue

Soxx, are you unlisted in the phone book? I've never received labels with anything other than name and address.

I guess the efforts I put in years back to get off mailing lists paid off. I don't get the labels except from my insurance agent. Actually, I like them but sure couldn't use more. I don't mail many things. I use them mostly for rebates so I don't have to handwrite everything.

Charities are a quandary for me. There are so many that are so deserving. But so many don't make efficient use of the money. Even the "kettles" get ripped off so often that I won't use them. I send a check, although I imagine I could put a check in there.

One thing I've done is change my Will. I now make several places beneficiaries in my Will. Not that I have all that much but my family and friends won't have to worry about fighting over it. A couple people will benefit and several worthwhile organizations will get it. I'd like to see more people include their favorite organizations in their estates.

And I don't want to go into the school kids going door to door fund-raising...