Never enough
Several years ago, I agreed to make monthly donations to Oxfam. Soon, I started receiving mail from them regularly to tell me of all they were doing and also to ask for further donations. I got fed up with all the mail and told the organisation I would stop donating if the mail continued. Now I get very little mail through the year, with the exception of a tax record. Instead of mail, I get email messages somewhat regularly from Oxfam. I also get a phone call about once every year or two, thanking me for my donations but then asking for more. Even after we’ve increased the amount of our donations quite recently.
Around the same time, the Scientist started donating to the World Wildlife Fund. While it seems a good cause, it’s mind-boggling how many glossy mailouts we get here. I think he did ask for a stop on those mail-outs at some point but we still seem to get mail from them fairly often. They always ask for further donations, of course.
I once gave to a local fund for the children’s hospital and now they send letter after letter asking for further money. The same could be said for other organisations that don’t immediately come to mind. It seems once you give, it’s like the flood gate are opened and more and more requests come through. I do kind of understand how this comes about, but it’s quite frustrating to keep getting more requests. And so often it seems as much money as I might have donated that one time is now spent on asking for more money. It’s a wonder the organisations have anything to spend on the particular cause.
Recently, I have had the most unusual sort of requests for donations ever when the Red Cross contacted me and thank me for my recent plasma donations. And then proceeded to ask me to give again, of course. I had already scheduled another donation at that point so that was particularly strange to me.
This donation thing is a very odd beast, to be sure.
4 Comments
The Scientist
It is an interesting phenomenon. I guess one can infer that not many people donate so they have no choice but to pester the current donors for more. If I increase my donations to all those that ask AND start donating to all those that ask then I will be one of those needing help.
Purple Lorikeet
Yes, it is quite interesting. Frustrating, but interesting…
Valerie
My understanding is that it costs any organization much less to get a repeat donation from someone who has already donated before compared to the cost of finding a new donor, which is why after you donate once they do so much endless asking you for more donations. It is maddening!!
The first organization I ever donated money to, when I was a young adult, was Planned Parenthood. As soon as I donated, I started getting desperate appeals in the mail, talking about how horrible the situation was and how urgently my money was needed. My donation had been small, so it seemed like they spent all of it and more on sending me more mail asking for more money. And instead of feeling good about having donated and helped the organization, I just got exposed to this insatiable monster of endless, desperate, need. So I ended up really regretting having ever given them any money. And the same thing for darn nearly every other organization I have ever donated money to.
I like my city’s Art Fair. They have an area with “causes.” Most of the causes have a booth with a donation jar, where you can drop in some cash. If you put money in the jar, it’s anonymous, so you don’t get on any mailing list from donating. I like that. :)
Purple Lorikeet
That sounds like a nice idea. We do have people who collect donations at local shops that would work sort of like that. They can give a receipt if you want to claim it on tax…But they show up all the time…different groups asking for money each week and it’s all too much. I seem to have left that part out of my post but it’s just as difficult since you often feel guilty for not giving when the person is standing there.