To object to being invited on FB to give money to a charity ?

No, you are not mean. There is too much asking for donations on Facebook - and too many private messages asking you to do this or that and pass something on and so on, loads of invites to events you haven't time for, and aren't much interested in anyway, it gets very tedious to be bombarded all the time with all of this!!

I almost fell for this when FB generously offered to donate £2 to a charity of my choice on my birthday. I clicked on the link, thinking how kind of them and immediately realised that I was setting up a request to all of my friends ( four at the last count) to donate as well. I cancelled it and suspect that FB make money from this in some way, otherwise why bother? Perhaps your friend was caught up in this too and hasn’t realised what has happened.

My DIL recently did this. Not only was the charity one I would not support, but the minimum donation was more than I could afford. I just sent her a card.

Facebook has a ĺot to answer for and causes lots of problems. What upsets me is people asking you to show your support for various causes e.g cancer, autism, mental health etc by putting the picture on your status for 24hrs How is that showing support? Support could be donating time fundraising or giving money, volunteering etc but not by posting a picture.

Thanks for your views. I have wished her a happy birthday on FB and she has thanked me, telling me I'm the first as her birthday is in fact tomorrow! FB slipped up there. Her charity fund is growing but no thanks to me.

This friend is very happy at present because she has just become engaged. I know this because it was announced on facebook.

I find it tiresome when people seem to live their lives so publicly.

However I am on several FB forums for various interests and I play scrabble online and I'm on here so I can't really judge others can I!

ignore

Just ignore them, I do, and I see plenty of these in lieu of a birthday gift, and the Gofundme pages. If you want to contribute, then fine, if not just scroll on

Hear, hear Janeainsworth
Sometimes I wonder and am saddened by how some people give a negative spin on everything and can be so downright nasty. Are they like that in RL? And while everyone may have their opinions, are they justified in such sweeping statements (without knowing any more) ?

What a nasty post Luckyfour.
Perhaps the friend just feels fortunate about what she has in life & would rather people donate instead of spending money on things she doesn’t want or need.

She's pretending to be so generous having her friends give the money to charity rather than giving her all those presents. She sounds rather self absorbed and pretentious.

Walk away.

I don't see what's actually wrong with asking people to give to a charity instead of giving a present, if they were going to give you a present anyway.

A few years ago we gave a party and asked people to make a donation to Crisis, instead of bringing gifts. We raised over £600.

No-one has to respond to anything on FB if they don't want to.

If it's a friend I wouldn't normally give a present to (and there are only a handful of them) I ignore it. I do have a very nice Facebook friend in America who I met when she was asking for donations when one of her cats was seriously ill. I sent some money, the cat recovered and we chat from time to time.

I'd ignore the request if you don't normally buy her a birthday gift.

Different if she was doing a sponsored walk or something similar.

I would ignore the request. If she ever refers to it just laugh and say it was so cheeky you thought it was one of those money scams you're always heading about.

Silly Nanny. You are not the only one in the world. I don’t bother with Facebook either. Neither does dh. I have an account that I set up when it first started but I never go on it and can’t access it anyway. Some friends get a bit frustrated as they have to tell me things separately but I refuse to go on it. I just can’t stand it all.

Just ignore it.

there's been an upswing in posts about friends not giving gifts and donating to charity. It's not to anyone personally so you can ignore it. If you don't normally give her a gift then don't donate!

You can choose to ignore these posts. Many of my own family members have been suckered into this. If all you want is to wish someone a Happy Birthday, go directly to someone's profile page and wish them a Happy Birthday, no strings attached.

I would simply disregard her request.

If she brings the matter up, you could truthfully say that you and she are not in the habit of exchanging gifts.

If she says, "but it is a worthwhile charity" smile and say, "Oh I know, but I am not rich enough to give to all the worthwhile charities out there."

Then change the subject.

I would have found her request cheeky too.

Oh help I had no idea it was FB who was setting this up. Thanks for telling us. I hope people don't get asked at my birthday!!

The reason we are seeing all these requests for birthday donations on Facebook is because Facebook offer to donate £2 on your birthday to a non-profit organisation of your choice. This in turn triggers the appeal which is visible to all your Facebook friends. I just send my birthday greetings and ignore the donation request - never had any issues with anyone over it up to now.

I had a fb notification the other day "inviting" me to donate to the charity of her choice for her wedding. 1, I had no idea she was getting married (they flew to Vegas a few days later for their wedding) 2, she was a friend from college 30+ years ago who I haven't seen since!

You’re not obliged to give anything so don’t. Keep it simple if you were buying a gift then gift the amount you would have spent. If no gift thought about don’t lose sleep over it. Constantly I see requests from my friends for this - I just ignore x

I saw it for the first time last birthday. FB asked me which charity I would support from a short list and I think said they would pay money in for my birthday gift. I foolishly ticked one and the next thing I knew was that it was asking all my friends to support me to get my donation to £150. I felt very embarrassed when one friend donated £20. I shall ignore it in future.

I keep seeing this on FB. I never donate. I’m amused to see that nobody has raised more than £10 amongst my FB friends.