charity fundraising

[cellio]

Dear Charities¹ That I Already Support,

I sent you a sizable donation this year. Recently, even, because I mostly do that at year-end when I know where the annual finances ended up. You acknowledged receipt.

So stop bombarding me with email asking for donations, will you? If I weren't inclined to support you the repeated appeals would not change that -- in fact they would drive me away, as they've done with some of your predecessors. And even though I am inclined -- I like you and support you, after all -- I'm starting to weary of this. It feels like the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Get your fundraising people in sync with your receipts people, please. I want to support you, but your methods are growing frustrating.

¹ Yes, the use of the plural is correct. I have gotten several email requests this week from each of two organizations I have a long record of supporting with single, annual donations.

Comments

[unique_name_123]

Same here. Now I get my mom's requests too. It is getting old.

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

So much agreement. I most resent charities I've given to once on the occasion of someone's death (requested donations) and they then hound me for years.

[goljerp]

Yes, exactly.

[mrpeck.livejournal.com]

That behavior seems somehow worse this year. I wonder if that's an actual change or just perception.

[eub.livejournal.com]

... It's the charity equivalent of, after you buy a Thing, you will be hounded around the Internet by ads for Thing. The ads are so close to being well-targeted, and yet not.

My suspicion, and I'd be curious to hear from people who work in the area, is that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing -- that not only are they sending the begging mail out blindly based only on their list of people, but consequently also they don't have the data to see how it drives people away.

[cellio]

Ugh. Not cool. They really ought to pay more attention to that context.

And then there are the ones where you donated once to support a friend doing a charity walkathon or similar, and they never leave you alone after that. The last time I supported one of those I handed my friend cash and said "on condition that you don't give them my contact details".

[cellio]

Yeah, the "I already bought it; shut up!" ads are just...off. I guess they only have search history and don't know that, behind that https: link, you clicked "buy".