"It would be lovely to
afford to support every worthy cause there is, but the fact is that we can’t,
and I assume neither can the majority of people.
Yes, we give to some
as we can, but my concern is this: Why are these organizations wasting who
knows how much money constantly sending these letters and free gifts when so
much of that money could be used toward research and care for their cause?"- Sally Roberts, letter to The Denver Post, 4/12
If I get another notebook, pen, coaster, calculator, pack of greeting cards or mailing labels from a charity I think my head will explode. What gives anyway? Why is this stuff now inundating mailboxes - not just mine but I am sure millions of others - and why are charities using their money to create these trinkets and baubles and send them out? Well, in order to try and produce a 'guilt' reflex so that the mark, errrr mail recipient, who will feel compelled to give money as opposed to just grabbing a 'gift' and walking off. But alas, that's mostly what I do. Grab the gift and keep it long enough to donate either to Vietnam Veterans of America or Goodwill.
In this sense, Denver Post letter writer Sally Roberts nailed it when she wrote (April 12, p. 8A):
"Not only is it a waste of money, but it is also a waste of paper used for name tags, notepads or whatever else they use to guilt us into supporting them."
The 'waste of money' aspect is a point well made. This is given, as she notes in another paragraph: 'who knows how much money' is being squandered to dispatch this largess when it could instead be used for more research for the particular cause? (Assuming said cause is real, bona fide.) I have to ask myself that question when I behold the pile of stuff that has arrived in the post just in the past 2 weeks, most of which is shown in the photo Janice took (top image).
Ms. Roberts is also correct when she says "it
is a concern of many", adding:
"Every single day we
receive piles of mail asking for donations. In some cases, these letters arrive
from the same charity every couple of weeks. Every day we toss or recycle most
of them."
I'd conservatively estimate at least two full recycle bins - for trash- have been filled with unwanted notebooks, envelopes, greeting cards - not to mention 'pleading paper' ('PLEASE!...)received in the past month and a half. Roberts is also spot on when she writes:
"If I were wealthy, I would be happy to donate to many of them, but I’m not, and the constant barrage of requests is annoying. I don’t want their free gifts,"
Bingo! I don't want them either. But how do we convince these delirious charities to get a grip? One way is for more people receiving them not to give in to the guilt complex and respond with $$. In this case, using sites such as charitynavigator.org which uses a specific formula to rate charities in terms of "financial health" as well as "accountability and transparency", e.g.
to rate charities in terms of "financial health" as well as "accountability and transparency". In each case the assigned score (based on sources, research) is from 0 to 10 and punched into the formula then computed. Let's say then that a charity has a financial health rating of 5 and A&T of 7, then we would find the resulting score: S = 100 - (8.66 + 93)/2 = 49.17 which is then assigned as the charity's soundness and efficiency rating. Clearly, this is middling at best, but what if each index merits a '10'? Then we obtain: S = 100 - 0 = 100. And one finds only a handful of charities are rated this high.
I was amazed to find that most of the charities that have been schlepping off these 'gifts' to me week in and week out are not rated at all. What gives? Well, either they don't meet Navigator's effectiveness- efficiency standards or else want no part of providing the data needed to assess their value. In the first case, most of the money (perhaps 75%) goes to pay for advertising and 'gifts' and only 25% (or less) to benefit the actual charity. In the second case, the outfit is way too sketchy to even provide adequate data so they by necessity end up "unrated" - which is what one finds when one punches in their name at the charity navigator site.
The end result is that despite nearly 100 pleas hitting my mailbox each week - many in large packets full of greeting cards, notebooks, pens and address labels - nearly 90 end up in the dumpster. A huge waste of paper (and trees - projecting this to national levels) - but that's all on the charities that engage in this 'freebie' to donate game. Like Sally Roberts I never asked them to stuff my mailbox with calculators, pens, calendars, coasters or whatnot.
It's time, I think, all these marginal charities be taught that their ploys won't work. Perhaps by taxing them at 10% of profits if efficiency falls below 50%? And in any case - certainly in these inflationary times when everything costs so much - most people are simply not prepared to dole out $15 (the usual minimal ask) for an illuminated hand magnifier, set of coasters or pen. We (Sally and me) would prefer that money get to the kid with cancer or the actual paralyzed vet, or the orphaned Indian isolated on a reservation school.
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