Appeal Overload

airyfish — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:36:33 +0000

As the postal appeals and phone calls roll in at an ever-increasing rate, I find I have to take a more resistant line with them. The spirit is willing, but the bank balance is becoming noticeably weaker, with the current price increases.
It’s easy to think, “Oh well, another pound or two a month won’t make much difference”, but then another, and another……..
So you get into a situation where you are giving small sums to too many different charities. As they exchange supporters’ names with one another, a sort of geometrical progression of appeals gets under way. Can’t blame them of course, but you have to watch it. I assume those I don’t support are being supported by someone else, so it averages out.
Freebies don’t bother me; some of them – the shopping bags, gardening gloves – are useful, and the rest get passed on. Far too many greetings cards, but then I haven’t had to buy any envelopes for ages. Also there’s been an improvement in the quality of some of the ball-point pens recently. The only freebies that annoy me are the sheets of dozens of address labels no bigger than postage stamps, with tiny print that you can hardly read without a magnifying glass. Much better to have fewer but larger ones; so other things being equal, any charity that does that might well get my support.

Standing orders

airyfish — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 19:00:06 +0000

I suppose that making donations by standing order, or direct debit in one or two cases, such as the RNLI, where it is in effect a membership fee, helps both parties to plan ahead. But if charities are then going to send you requests for further donations, I think they need to exercise some restraint about it. Once or twice a year is OK, preferably with a newsletter about work in progress. For example, a little-known charity, the Anita Goulden Trust, looking after street children in South America, does this very well: you don’t feel pressurised by too-frequent appeals. World Villages for Children, which I also support, are a bit too persistent, with a postal appeal about once a month. However, they do send you a stamped envelope, and I admit to steaming the stamps off and using them sometimes.
Another thing I don’t much care for is being bombarded with freebies. From IFAW, for example, I’ve had umbrellas, cot blankets, slippers, T-shirts etc., even before sending them anything. For those to whom I can only make a small donation, I have just printed some slips saying “Sorry I can’t send more, but there are so many charity appeals these days”.
As for window envelopes, they are so often used, not just by charities, that I’ve got used to tearing the window out, if I have time, and putting the rest in the recycling box.

Airyfish

Appeal Overload

Standing orders