Wish We Hadn't Donated to Charity: Mailbox Overflowing Now

[LoneRanger]

We donate to a few charities. Our postal mail box is now overflowing with appeals from other charities. They trade or sell donor lists to each other. I get it, people who have donated are prized leads for mail campaigns or etc. But this is ridiculous. Our letter carrier probably hates us. Wish there was a way to designate that if we donate to your charity and you give our name out as a hot lead to umpteen other charities, then we will cease donating to you.

 

[Pew]

Subbed for info. I donated a few times in the past couple years and the amount of mail that I get now is ridiculous.

 

[Kira]

I place a Post-It note on the form whenever I donate. It reads what you just said but in fewer words as it must fit on a the little square piece of yellow paper. It appears to work as we don't see many "secondary" mailings. I had an uncle who used different letters for his middle initial just to get a lead on which list was sold around.

 

[supton]

I did that in the past and realized that they will sell your data and that I'd be getting junk mail forever. I quickly stopped being nice guy and toss the mail as a rule. I limit my giving to church now, all the places I want to give money to I already do, I don't need any more charities to support. You can try moving, that seemed to do the trick for me.

 

[Eddie]

I only give money to my Church (Child & family services), and the Salvation Army. It took almost five years for the extra mail to stop after donating to a major charity. Ed

 

[Ws6]

I dont have enough expenses to itemize, so donating doesnt make sense. If I ever do, I'll weigh this if its worth it. TY for heads up, OP.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

I haven't seen it. This year I did ACS and Shriner's Hospitals for Children. I still have to send some $$ to the local Meals on Wheels. I do get a lot from Médecins Sans Frontières and Heifer Intl. I never gave to Heifer Intl but have been a big supporter of Doctors without Borders My wife gets mails from Wildlife Fed and ASPCA all the time. If you look on Charity Navigator you will see typically tens of millions of dollars annually spent on marketing You can call and get off the mailing list. Junk mail is a Small price to pay for you generous donation and help. It IS Too bad about the excessive marketing and trash being generated. Time for a Federal Law ? again You can call and get off the mailing list. It may even work.

 

[Onetor]

"No good deed goes unpunished."

 

[Aredeeem]

The upside is you'll never have to buy a return address label for the rest of your life.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Originally Posted by Ws6

I dont have enough expenses to itemize, so donating doesnt make sense. If I ever do, I'll weigh this if its worth it. TY for heads up, OP.

Please, Ws6, Donating shouldn't be associated with your tax relief , should it?

 

[incognito_2u]

Like feeding a stray cat........they keep coming back for more.

 

[SR5]

Originally Posted by ARCOgraphite

You can call and get off the mailing list..

That's what I did. I just called them up and asked them to stop mailing me. They did stop. Job done

 

[LoneRanger]

Originally Posted by Aredeeem

The upside is you'll never have to buy a return address label for the rest of your life.

LOL, that's one of the freebies some of them enclose to guilt you into throwing coin to them. Just to be clear though, we do support a few charities and we give weekly at church which helps with community relief efforts and the local food bank. Just can't feed all the stray cats (metaphor) that are showing up.

 

[Tom NJ]

We stopped all donations to national charities and instead give the money only to local charities. This way we know the people, know how they operate and spend the money, and know the money is helping local people. These charities such as our food bank, Humane Society, volunteer fire department, volunteer first aid, and various education groups do not have the budget to flood our mailbox with solicitations and do not sell our name to the nationals. We usually get just one or two letters per year from each of them during their annual donation campaigns or for events. I also give substantial time volunteering for our food bank, which runs on a shoestring budget and feeds hundreds of food stressed families each week. Sometimes giving time and expertise is more valuable than money.

 

[opus1]

Originally Posted by Aredeeem

The upside is you'll never have to buy a return address label for the rest of your life.

Or note pads.

 

[opus1]

You think it's bad now, wait until you start getting the "surveys" from the charities that are really veiled set-ups to try to get you to include the charity in your estate planning.

 

[pandus13]

Originally Posted by LoneRanger

Originally Posted by Aredeeem

The upside is you'll never have to buy a return address label for the rest of your life.

LOL, that's one of the freebies some of them enclose to guilt you into throwing coin to them. Just to be clear though, we do support a few charities and we give weekly at church which helps with community relief efforts and the local food bank. Just can't feed all the stray cats (metaphor) that are showing up.

1.Recycle the paper. It keeps USPS employed. 2.Burn the paper. Feed your lawn with the ash. 3.Search THAT thread in the past when somebody posted a USPS approved way to change a return envelope into an fridge sized box and send them back whatever...

 

[Pew]

Originally Posted by Tom NJ

We stopped all donations to national charities and instead give the money only to local charities. This way we know the people, know how they operate and spend the money, and know the money is helping local people. These charities such as our food bank, Humane Society, volunteer fire department, volunteer first aid, and various education groups do not have the budget to flood our mailbox with solicitations and do not sell our name to the nationals. We usually get just one or two letters per year from each of them during their annual donation campaigns or for events. I also give substantial time volunteering for our food bank, which runs on a shoestring budget and feeds hundreds of food stressed families each week. Sometimes giving time and expertise is more valuable than money.

Agreed, volunteering your time to charity is probably one of the highest forms of donating IMO. Our highschool required some 30 hours of volunteer work for every student during the second year and I spent mine at our local food bank (which I've been to when my family was in times of need). You meet some pretty cool and respectful people there. I donated to the humane society a few years back and honestly I kind of regret it. The amount of mail I've gotten from them and other charities is ridiculous now.

 

[JohnnyJohnson]

Its called a Spam filter. Also you never give these people your real personal account just set up a Junk Gmail account.

 

[daman]

yup i'll never do that again, plus you never know if your money is really going to<span style="font-style: italic"> that</span> cause.