How to Lose Donors
I once felt strongly about the importance of a particular election and made a donation to the Republican party.
Ever since, I've regretted the decision, not because of the candidate, but because making a donation put me on a "spam constantly" list.
Over the years since, we've received endless fund raising letters and phone calls from every conceivable permutation of the Republican party, enough that they have now invested far more in seeking money than I originally donated before I knew the long-term consequences.
For years now, I've returned every piece of mail, at their expense, stamped "Please Take Me Off Your Mailing List", to no avail.
But tonight was a new low. A woman called from the National Republican Party. When I asked to be taken off her list, she insisted on a reason. On being told it was because they'd now ignored over 200 such requests via mail, she insisted I would have to individually request to be taken off every individual campaign. When I reminded her it only costs them money to deny my request, she immediately hung up. I then checked the calling number, to block it from calling me in future, and discovered she used an "out of area" number to call me, just like the worst illegal telemarketers.
The Republican party has recently been sinking like a rock, thanks to making sure everyone knows they no longer stand for honest government. Experiences like this convince me they want to lose big in 2008. I guess they don't call it the "stupid" party for nothing...
I will never again make a personally-identifiable political contribution.
Simlarly,. I used to donate to any charity with enough gumption to send a volunteer to my door. I now insist on making such donations anonymously. The only charities now privileged to know my name and address are those I support regularly. Even those sometimes ask again often enough to get dropped from my list.
I tithe, but never donate again to those whose thanks for a gift is to spam me for another.
Update: Looks here like the person who called me has just been fired, along with all her co-workers. Couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch. Too bad there doesn't seem to be any evidence of those who fired them getting a clue yet though.
Update2: A participant in The Fitness Race was recently trying to raise last-minute money via Email and a Web site to reach their goal as a Tour de Cure bicycle rider.
On visiting the site, I noticed that it offered an option to donate anonymously on-line via credit card. I wondered how that was going to work, since the charity would clearly have to know who I was to process the donation. And I soon had my answer - not at all! Within minutes of making the anonymous donation on-line, I received a direct personal Email from the tour participant, thanking me by name for the donation. So much for anonymity!
So far the Tour de Cure has honored my request NOT to add me to a spam list for future donors, and not to contact me again. But it missed the primary point of an anonymous donations, which was that the donor didn't want the recipient to know from whom the donation came! I wanted the recipient merely to be glad they'd made their goal via their Email, without being able to know who specifically among their addressees had made the donation.
Sadly, this means I no longer believe on-line charity offers to process donations anonymously, which in turn means I no longer make such donations via check or credit card to charities I don't intend to support regularly. More sadly for such charities, both they and I have to hope that whoever I give a cash donation to on their behalf is honest enough to actually deliver the donation to its intended recipient. Needless to say, that will limit the size of such donations.
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