Cash.

Yeah, I know technically you can still deduct that, but I figured, with this amount of money (it was more than I'd ever donated) it was safer to have a paper trail.

And am I terrible for wanting to get a tax deduction? I don't think I am. Don't get me started on what I think are flaws in our tax policy! (HT was banned for a good reason, I daresay)

I'm not sure if by "cash" you're suggesting paper money and not a check. If you want to protect a tax deduction, proof of payment is needed and even if you pay with cash in paper money form, you need to get a receipt and the charity will likely ask for your name and address.

Charitable orgs need to raise money and that's their reality. The better ones monitor their costs and results of various programs and only continue with those for which they consider the return on the spending adequate. It's to be expected.

I get plenty of unwanted mail, much more from commercial organizations than from charities and I suspect most everyone else does too. There's no reason to let that aggravate you. Leave unwanted mail pieces unopened and put them into the trash. Done.

We give to a few select local charities. I also don't give to charities who send me note pads or address stickers or free pens. That is NOT what I want my donation being spent on.

"I also don't give to charities who send me note pads or address stickers or free pens. That is NOT what I want my donation being spent on."

It may be different where you are in Canada but in the US, non-profits (which is a wider definition than "charities") don't raise money without spending money and having campaigns for contributions. Heck, even the public broadcasting TV and radio stations have such programs several times a year.

Like many others, I too get mail, phone calls, email messages (I got one just two days ago from a friend concerning an org he's involved with), from a variety of places. For ones I like to give money to, I appreciate the reminders. For others, I just toss/delete/decline, as appropriate.

Mail? What mail? Ours has been coming after 6 p.m., if at all. We had and have a very nice mail carrier, but he can't control the way the fat man's postmaster general has wrecked the US Postal system. I hope our president will keep appointing new people to the board of governors. America's postal system is VITAL. (End of Rant)

Agreed chisue. Mail has become more inconsistent here. More days with no mail, but the rest of the days, a big pile of stuff I largely don't want.

Elmer I see your point, but some of the charities I donated to manage to have existed for many years, and have good charity navigator ratings, without wasting tons of money on mailings.

I did notice recently on a "franked" piece of mail that the USPS only charges charities 13 cents for bulk mail. At least that is what the imprint said. That seems like part of the problem right there. They should be charged more.

I give year round through payroll deductions to the charity of my employers choice. I avoid getting my info sold that way. I put spare change in the red kettles sometimes. And I do other things sporadically. Today, I went to tractor supply to get leos food, and there was a table set up in the parking lot with handmade wooden things that were being sold for some charity to help veterans. I wrote the organization name down, Googled it in my car to make sure it was legit, and I bought a little wooden heart for 20 bucks. All they had were hearts and crosses. Some of the crosses were quite beautiful and elaborate, but I just bought something small to support them. At the feed store where I buy the others dogs food, they had a truck to recieve donations for the west alabama humane society. I bought an extra 50 pound bag of dog food for the truck. I do not respond to mail,email, whatever solicitations for money,but I understand that to receive donations, they do have to ASK for them,and I do not get mad about it. Give where you want, don't worry about the rest of them.

"I did notice recently on a "franked" piece of mail that the USPS only charges charities 13 cents for bulk mail."

I'll again restate that most nonprofit organizations are NOT charities and most qualify for reduced mailing rates. Pre K-12 schools, colleges and universities, hospitals, foundations and philanthropic orgs, scientific and research institutes, trade and labor organizations, veterans' orgs, and more, are nonprofits but not charities. You get the picture.

Nonprofits will always spend money to raise money, postage is one of the costs. You want them to limit what they spend to raise money but you're okay with having to spend more for postage?

We donate to our local chapter of the Boys & Girls Clubs, and they send emails, but the emails come from THEM, and they are sporadic, not overwhelming, and not from their corporate/national.

If I was tired of getting them, I'd just reply to the email, and there is a person at the other end.

Good luck getting off of those lists, davidrt28. My dad used to get literally dozens of pieces of mail begging for money every.single.delivery. For years it went on. Counting and tracking and complaining about who'd sent him how many requests was his hobby, I think. The only way we ended the deluge was when he moved out here, we forwarded his mail to a post office box instead of to his new apartment address. After a year, during which we made sure all his banks, doctors, etc had his "real" address, we cancelled the post office box. I turned in the key and told the woman "no forwarding address" -- she saw the box number and said "I understand completely."

I agree, raise the rates and the waste will go down.

No org wants to waste money sending solicitations to people who aren't interested. Ask to have your name removed and I'll bet that will happen.

Raise the postage rates and each will have to spend more money raising money. But I think it's unlikely that raising rates for nonprofits is politically possible. Religious groups have a disproportionate influence on one political party and religious groups qualify for reduced mailing rates. Any proposal for change would be DOA.

Ask to have your name removed and I'll bet that will happen -- Not in my dad's experience with his charities. Nor did putting his name on the DMA (direct mailing association) list have any effect. I was kind of surprised because businesses respond well requests to stop their mailings.

I agree with Elmer, though, that the system is unlikely to change. Someone's making too much money, somehow.

Knock on wood, I've been pretty lucky with the results of my charitable giving. I tend to stick to local organizations although I've also given to the Red Cross in areas devastated by natural disasters. I have three charities who send me periodic emails, but I don't get much snail mail, perhaps because I donated online and there wasn't a need to provide one's physical address. The most insistent and frequent snail mail requests come from my university and my house's previous owner's university. Those get flipped into the recycle bin on the way from the mail box into the house.

I don't know if there's something similar for you in the US, but in Canada there's a charitable organization that collects and redistributes charitable donations, and they can provide anonymity. They charge the charities about 4%, which is a little more than what the credit card companies would charge them per transaction anyway, but it greatly improves the ease of donations to small and medium sized charities. I do all my donating through them.

I used to do direct mail fund raising for a large library system. We did not sell our donor list but we did exchange lists with other similar local nonprofits, such as the art museum.

When people donated to us they had the option to have their name and address kept off any exchanges. This request was marked in the database so those names were eliminated when creating list for exchange.

We did buy lists from list brokers. The lists we bought were often magazine and catalog lists ( we’re going back a number of years here)., according to demographics.

Our mailing list went to a mailhouse that bumped it up against the Do Not Mail list and those names were removed. Any responsible organization should be doing that.

You can try this to remove your name. Dmachoice

What is a "screed"?

angelaid, a screed is a rant on steroids; an outburst of complaint, running to paragraphs instead of sentences.

dedtired, my dad was beset by irresponsible organizations of which there are plenty. It's a shame that greedy people are out to make a buck by exploiting people's desires to help the widows, orphans, homeless veterans, poor Indian children, etc of the world. Not only by snail-mail but by phone as well. (Thank goodness Dad would never give his credit card info over the phone!)

TV, yes there are ways to donate anonymously. Just a shame that it's even necessary. Oh well.

I’ve wondered if a donation check with the address and zip code blacked out would be cashable If so, they couldn’t get the address fir mailing or selling. What do you think?

The excess mailings and those horrible address stickers are a terrible waste.

Yes to Chisue’s comment. Hope Dejoy is gone soon.