Thursday, November 03, 2011

Hoo boy

Evidently, somebody talked my neighbor L. into doing one of those neighborhood "stop cancer" letter-writing campaigns. You know, where people stuff their neighbors' mailboxes (illegal) with requests for money to go to a certain charity?

I mean, it's pretty harmless, and once or twice a year I get a form letter from one neighbor or another asking for money for the American Cancer Society or the Red Cross, which I promptly toss. I prefer to pick my own charities, thankyouverymuch.

Except L.'s recent request for money caught my eye. Mainly because on the form letter she had crossed out about three different names before she wrote in mine, making me pretty sure I'm not real high on her begging priority list, which is excellent.

So I brought the letter in to work and ran the charity through Charity Navigator, which gave it a very low rating. And the reviews were equally damning, with stories of elderly people being given the hard sell to donate.

And I have to wonder - there are so many good, needy charities out there - why is L. shilling for a "charity" that is the equivalent of a Nigerian bank collapse e-mail scam?

It's a mystery. Maybe I'll ask her.

Then again, judging by all the names she crossed out on the letter before she wrote in mine, evidently she's not real sure who I am, so maybe I'll just leave well enough alone.

3 comments:

Shalini said...

Wow, crossing out names on a charity letter. classy! Kind of like sending a form letter for thank-yous.

Birdie said...

It is amazing how many charities take so much off the top before it even gets to the people who need help. Because of that I only give to our local hospice and palliative unit.

rockygrace said...

Shalini, yeah, if she's gonna beg for money, the least she can do is get my name right. I've only lived next door to her for two years.

And Birdie, yeah, some of the fundraising outfits spend, like, ninety-five percent of the donated money on salaries, advertising, etc., and only five percent actually goes to the charity. But the charity figures that five percent is better than nothing, and goes along. It's a racket.