Postal charity requests

Well, I can't tell you how delighted I am to have read this forum tonight. I received yet another Red Cross envelope full of unwanted tat this morning and, having binned the last two or three, felt guilty and decided I would return them with a letter explaining why I would no longer be donating to them. However, like everyone else, I am very busy and really don't want to be bothered. So, heartened by all your comments, I shall bin it without further ado!!

My DH and I have our favourite charities to which we donate on a regular basis and we also try to respond to emergency appeals. I am not going to be emotionally blackmailed by these unwanted gifts. Oooh feel better for getting that off my chest! [thgrin]

Further to my annoyance about the alcohol addiction charity, I have just looked on google maps and found the address of the charity is in fact a wine bar in central London. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that it is an office above the premises but above a bar and within a street of bars

Allie don't recycle those nice charity bags - they fit tall pedal bins beautifully!

grannya thank you for the eye-opening list of charities - I have always tried to support LOCAL animal charities and organisations who do not have the mega-millions and rely on volunteers., I wonder how many people leave money to the big charities not realising how much goes on admin, directors salaries and perks.
I remember seeing a program about the woman who heads up the Blue cross charity and the salary she commanded while lots of the centres were run on a shoestring was appalling.

I spoke to someone who kept ringing me on behalf of the Woodland Trust (which charity I had supported for years) about the annoyance of being pestered. He had all the spiel: the charities justify pestering people by post and by phone because it is "effective". I withdrew my support from the Woodland Trust and all other charities with that "end justifies the means" attitude because I think it is immoral. I told them too. They seemed surprised.

Which only proves to me that too many charities (or their managements, at any rate) have grossed out with success and lost their moral compass. Too many have become political machines.

and yuck.

I had a letter this morning from addaction asking me to donate, the letter was addressed to me by first and second name, and signed by the Director of fundraising. I have returned his bumph in the pre-paid envelope with a letter asking them to remove my name from their data base. I also wrote that I did not donate to a charity that employs a director of fundraising as it was obvious he was drawing a large salary from annoying people like me. There was a suggestion that £100 would help teach young people about the dangers of binge drinking instead I gave it to the parents of the boy who died in the traffic accident to help with the funeral costs.

Ditto Nfk re charities.
And all the bags I get through the front door are immediately recycled.

Since I couldn't possibly give to all these, I don't do any. But I do give sometimes elsewhere - when I choose.

I'm afraid I don't bin the place mats, pens, cards, etc as I loathe waste. But neither would I consider giving to the charities.
I wasn't going to give to the poppy appeal this year as they sent a load of stuff, but the nice gent with his medals and handle bar moustache who was collecting locally was so angry about what their head office had done, I relented.
I expect some little twerp somewhere has the figures to prove this sort of marketing works.

I know I've mentioned the Charities Aid Foundation before, but it's worth thinking about. You set up an account with a monthly payment of your choice (from £10, I think) and they claim Gift Aid if applicable and add it to your account. You can then give by Charity Card or voucher (like a cheque) or online, but the best thing is that you can give anonymously so that you do not have endless appeals for more.

Since my mother became ill last year and later died, I have phoned all sorts of charities which she supported and asked for her name to be removed from their lists, and in every single case they have been helpful and pleasant and in every case except one I have not heard from them again. Perhaps you have to become incapable of managing your affairs, or, indeed, dead before they will listen to requests to stop bothering you...

McMillan chugger who came to my door one dark night put me right off that charity. Fortunately Marie Curie Cancer Care does the same job and I will continue to give to them.

I recently had a call from a charity that I give to and had a very nice chat with the young man. I asked if younger people give as readily as we grans do and he said about 80% of donations come from over 60s. I'm not sure if we are more generous or just a soft touch!
On the subject of the cards and junk mail we receive - I use any cards and envelopes to make little notebooks, etc. and give them to local charities. They seem to sell quite well for about 20p and I enjoy making them. That way I don't feel guilty about not replying to them all and the stuff doesn't get wasted. (I hate to waste paper!)

Many years ago I sold Christmas Cards for a charity, a percentage of which we as a local group kept, another percentage went to the main office of the Charity, the balance to the producers of the cards. One year we hit a target - can't remember how much, but volunteer card sellers were all invited to a meal at one of the hotels in London, which was a lovely gesture, BUT there were so many 'paid' people from the charity card producers, praising everyone for their efforts and telling us about the profit made, and I suddenly thought, 'hang on there, here I am, giving my time (considerable) using my telephone (free of charge) and driving around in the car, making deliveries (no petrol claimed), and there you are telling me how well you have done!' Haven't sold a charity card since. I have my own charities to which I contribute regularly, always support Lions and Round Table (they give to local people) and of course the good old Sally Ally, there in the time of need.

oh nellie, I'd have been with you on the China walk front.
I feel a bit Scroogelike in my dislike of the notion of raising money to fund a charity fundraiser that involved exciting overseas travel. If we raise money by bike rides, walks etc, we fund any costs involved ourselves.

My sentiments exactly Nellie why travel to China when you can walk anywhere ? Far better to give the cost of the airfare to the charity.
I have stopped filling in the enclosed forms when sending cheques to charities, I just pop the cheque in and they get the money and I don't get pestered to raise the amount.
I do not agree with paying people to fund raise, it takes a lot of donations to pay their wages before the charity gets one penny.
When chuggers come to the door I tell them that they have just ensured that I will not donate, thankfully the ones I give to do not employ these pests.

GrannyA that is indeed an eye opener! Is that annual income or just assets.
I would never try to sell raffle tickets etc for The National Trust or Ramblers or other such cultural organisations. They seem to me in a way more to be supporting personal interest activities rather than general public welfare, if you see what I mean.

Oxfam and a child sponsorship organisation get most of my giving, or any of the DEC projects. After that its the local hospice, maybe Macmillan fund Marie curie or similar.
I once got the cold shoulder from someone at work, for not contributing to a fund to help a group get to China for a charity walk.
My argument was why not just do the walk in Britain and save a great deal of money on travel which could go to the fund.

This thread is so reassuring. My chosen charities are the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, cancer, Motor Neurone Disease, and Arthritis. I'm a volunteer with a dog rescue organisation and have signed some on line petitions about animal welfare, puppy farming etc.
I had a door step run in with a young man at 8pm one evening, who was collecting for the Red Cross. When I told him I do support the REd Cross, but never give money to people at the door, he said brightly "that's ok, we can do it through the window".
I have been inundated with letters full of personalised christmas tags, cards etc by various charities, including an A4 envelope stuffed with stuff from the Red Cross.
I have in the past sent things back, with a request to be removed from the mailing list, but of course that doesn't happen. I now put everything in the re-cycling bin. Presumably, these mail shots must raise more money than they cost, but it does seem such an expensive waste of time and money. Plus, it is so irritating.
Rant over - for now

Thank you for all the replies, I no longer feel guilty about re-cycling the stuff sent to me.

We donated to the Tsunami Appeal in 2004 and did it through the Red Cross. Since then, we are regularly inundated with envelopes full of 'stuff' and it just means that I won't donate to them again. The stuff goes in the bin and I no longer feel guilty about it. I also used to get telephone calls from other charities we do support asking me to raise the amount of the monthly donation - really put my back up - until I asked them to stop calling me, which they have done. The only charity I don't mind calling me is the RNIB, who phone to ask if it's all right to send us raffle tickets.

I give regularly to several national charities. I fondly imagined that I would no longer be deluged with requests from these at Christmas but no, still they come. I rang several of the charities and asked them why they are so persistent in asking the givers for more. I was told, ''We get more from our regular givers with a mail shot than we do from the general public'' I was amazed.

I give regularly and monthly to three charities - only a small amount to each - I have received at least 5 charity envelopes with cards, gift tags and the personally printed stickers.

Sorry - don't get me started on the Donkey Sanctuary. Their income for the year 2012 was £27.1 million. I had a lodger who worked there briefly and her tales of (in my view) extravagant money spent on the donkeys' welfare made me wish to send some of the local elderly people there for some TLC.
I have found this list (created in April 2012)to be quite helpful in deciding where my money does or doesn't go: www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/datasets/top-1000-uk-charities-by-donations/versions/1.txt
It's quite an eye opener.

We shouldn't feel bad about binning unwanted stuff that comes through the post. Even the envelope full of stuff from the disabled artists because they know that enough money comes in to warrant a blanket targeting of all and sundry. We support The Salvation Army and Barnados at Christmas and that's it, rather than spread the money thinly around.Just give to your chosen charities.

The children went carol singing and sent the money to the Donkey Sanctuary; many years later I'm still getting literature from them. We only gave them a few pounds.

The income of most of these charities would be considerable less if they did not send out these mailshots. That is a fact even if we wish it wasn't.

I have a portfolio of charities I give to on a regular basis and I review then every year and sometimes drop one and pick up another. Each month one of them gets a cheque and I work round each in turn.

Any mailings I receive from them or any others goes in the bin without a thought. Charities which get dropped like a brick are charities that ring me at home asking for more or charities that try to morally blackmail me by sending me cheap and tacky gifts. The Red Cross and Marie Curie Cancer charity are the worst for this and I do not give to either, nor will I consider doing so during while they indulge in these underhand practices.

But again they do this because it pays.

I'm relieved to see so many of you also bin the tacky stuff that charities send out at Christmas -the Red Cross are the worst. I've always felt guilty but I'd rather support local charities like EACH (East Anglian Children's Hospices)

I rescued a cygnet this summer and tried for two days to get some support from the RSPCA. Every time I got through I was redirected to an automated request for donations. In the end I managed to get a private rescue centre to take it.