March 15, 2010 at 5:30 pm
Is The Salvation Army living too much in the past? I have received a letter nicely thanking me at the outset for the support I have shown in the past. Yes – but the last donation was more than 12 years ago. The letter was sent to me at an address I left seven years [...]
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March 10, 2010 at 6:04 pm
A 2.5-page letter with poor grammar and a number of spelling mistakes (too much reliance on spellchecker?) has come from the Director of Clean Rivers Trust. It is not exactly a ‘punchy’ letter. One reads quite a bit, wondering when one will learn for what type of work money will be needed – because the [...]
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February 19, 2010 at 6:33 pm
Many charities are distinctly local. It may be a hospice with a defined catchment area, an air ambulance for one or more counties, a youth club in a specific town, or whatever.
In the past, such local charities secured much of their voluntary income from those living (or who had lived) in the area, local businesses, [...]
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February 18, 2010 at 5:08 pm
A relatively new charity, Scottish Disability Golf Partnership, needs to raise £15,744 to hold the second Pan-Disability Open Golf Championship – for an estimated 60 golfers with a wide range of serious diusabilities.
Th enthusiasm of the chairman, who is blind, and who has more than 15 years’ experience in the administration and operation of disabled [...]
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February 3, 2010 at 4:51 pm
I wonder whether any fundraising guru has specified the number of different items in a fundraising pack which exceed the ideal. I don’t know the answer – but it seemes to me that the admirable Stroke Association might be overdoing it with six different items, rather poorly held together with a paper clip.
I received a [...]
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January 10, 2010 at 4:35 pm
An appeal from Save the Rhino is not more of the same – you know, saying how dire everything is, and asking for £10, £30 ‘or whatever you can spare’.
This is a well thought out and presented appeal. Instead of simply asking for core funds, the request is to contribute to the £4,767 required to [...]
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December 1, 2009 at 6:26 pm
I have received the second request from SmileTrain. It has been advertising extensively, and direct mailing widely – spending, presumably, a lot of money. To me, that does not convey the right message. Rightly or wrongly, it gives me the feeling that a high proportion (perhaps 100%!) of any donation which I might make would simply [...]
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November 17, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Friends of the Elderly has been stretching my credulity. In a fundraising leaflet about its work, it quotes two ‘case studies’. In each case, alongside, in very small type, running up the side of the page, is the statement: “We have changed the details in our case study to protect our client’s privacy.” In other [...]
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October 18, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Yes, we know that funds are needed for the Asia-Pacific Disasters. But I don’t think UNICEF is setting about appealing for funds in the right way. It spent 72p in postage (individually franked envelope) to send me a total of two sheets of paper (three sides of printing).
What is more, it was sent to an [...]
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October 11, 2009 at 3:48 pm
A ‘catch all’ application for funds comes from the RSPCA. An appealing item of card, which is well laid out, asks for a cheque/PO, credit card payment – or up to £3 in pound coins. There are slots in the card where the coins can be stuck. My guess is that quite a numbr of [...]
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