July 19, 2011 at 10:08 am
I received a telephone call from the BRC yesterday, during which I came under unrelenting pressure to listen to a litany of information I did not need nor wanted, and every time I told the caller very politely that I cannot give more than I already give, he just kept hammering on trying to deliver [...]
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May 21, 2011 at 10:32 am
ZANE, the charity that does sterling work for unfortunate victims of the dreadful regime in Zimbabwe, sets a fine example of how to communicate with donors. The latest round robin from this organisation helpfully spells out how funds are used, corruption is avoided, and donors are given some control over application of their gifts. [...]
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May 10, 2011 at 2:28 pm
The rate at which charities’ appeals are coming through my letterbox has accelerated alarmingly over the past three months. I now receive at least one per day, which is rapidly making me become more and more choosey about the ones to which I donate funds. More gimmicky bits of tat, including the usual adhesive name/address [...]
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April 9, 2010 at 11:59 am
I recently gave a sizeable sum to SmileTrain, the organisation which provides free corrective surgery for children with cleft palates in third world countries. I am now regularly bombarded with pleas for more money. The latest appeal is accompanied by photographs of children with very severe cleft palates, doubtless aimed at applying some emotional “blackmail” [...]
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September 4, 2009 at 7:20 pm
I was disappointed to see an appeal in the national press today by Christian Aid, in which this charity asked people to contact the PM and badger him about urging the EU to commit to absurd cuts in “domestic carbon emissions” among other more laudable objectives. That a charity of the standing of Christian Aid [...]
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November 28, 2008 at 6:27 pm
In these times of belt tightening by us all, I would urge charitable organisations to adopt a policy whereby they spell out very clearly what percentage of any donation will reach the people who need help, i.e. break out administrative and other costs. If one were reliably informed as to how much of one’s donations [...]
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May 22, 2008 at 3:39 pm
In the wake of the appalling tragedy in Myanmar, appeals for donations are flying around thick and fast. Given the corruption which is rife in Myanmar I would have hoped that the charities which are clamouring for funds might have taken the trouble to spell out to donors how they will ensure that aid is [...]
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March 15, 2008 at 11:10 pm
The Scottish Executive, in a bid to entice more of us to register as organ donors (hence my designation of this story as a charity item), has been running a billboard campaign entitled “Kill Jill”, with a picture of a young lady above two empty boxes with “Yes” above one, and “No” above the other. [...]
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March 3, 2008 at 5:47 pm
One of the charities which I patronize recently sent me a nice little handwritten note from the youngster in South America whom I sponsor; a translation of what she wrote was appended, however it was not accurate and missed out some of what she had written (I happen to speak Spanish so it was easy [...]
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August 6, 2007 at 6:17 pm
One of the aspects of many a charity’s written appeals, which I find patronising, is letters which start with “Dear Friend,”. To be so addressed by an entity or individual to which/whom one is unknown grates with me, and tends to turn me off the idea of responding. The old “Dear Sir/Madam” has always [...]
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