
Don’t mistake my rhetoric for a negative position
towards charity donations. Last I
looked, my donations on my tax form exceeded the Obama’s, partially due to Mary
and me attending at least five private universities supporting at least two Publically-supported
media, a dozen or more on-going religious charities, and half a dozen charities
where donations were made “in lieu of flowers”.
What I noticed this year was a full-court press beyond
my past experiences. I had more solicitations than catalogs or Christmas Cards. It triggers some of
my pet peeves.
1. Solicitations from charities where I have an
annual membership: Not only is this
confusing, it makes me wonder why I belong to this group. Biggest offenders are the state and national
parks. Caught in the process are organizations
like the Audubon Society, whose membership renewals look like solicitations.
2. Solicitations
that come in the same envelope as acknowledgment of a donation. Hey, if I had meant to include more I would
have put it in the earlier envelope.
3. Telephone
solicitations, including some of the above universities. If I donate annually, send me a request with
notice of my last contribution. Hearing
from a current student doesn’t hit my heart strings, especially knowing that
he/she is paying a five-figure tuition to be on the telephone.
4. Assuming
that because I donated in memory of someone who has passed away, I have a
personal interest in your charity.
5. Assuming
that I delay my contributions until the end of the year because of tax reasons.
6. Assuming
that I am ignorant of how to contribute through a will. If you haven’t got my loyalty by the time I
am ready to die, you’re unlikely to convince me on my deathbed. I probably have other things on my mind.
Getting back to #Giving Tuesday: it seems to be
working. This year’s total was $45
million, up from $28 million last year.
And, as the hashtag implies, most of it came online. The biggest move in online giving this year
was the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS,
which raised some $21.7 million dollars in a viral social media summer
splurge. This sum is all the more
remarkable because it came from small donations.

It would seem that most donors don’t take the trouble
to check out how much of their donation gets to those in need. Instead, the study showed, they assume that
big-money givers do that research and, if they are mentioned in the
solicitation, poorer individuals will follow.
Ironically, donations are less impacted by the economy than might be
thought, belying the old joke about the man who apologizes to the beggar for a
small donation because “times have been hard”. The beggar says, “Why should
your problem be my problem?”
Why, indeed?
In my next post I will share why, all of a sudden I
had a memory of some seventy years of thinking about braids. I hope you will be interested to join me.
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