Uncharitable Charities
September 7th 2009 12:54 pm
Here is my article for the May-June 2009 issue of TK Magazine
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A few minutes ago, as I sat down to write my column for this month’s issue of TK Magazine, the phone rang.
Well, the subject I had in mind will just have to wait for the next issue, because now I am mad, and you’re going to hear all about it.
My caller was a solicitor. He wanted me to donate money to a charity that had (probably) hired him to call me. And boy, was he insistent. Oh, he started out nice enough – wanted to know if I’m “gettin’ along okay,” and if I have any family members or friends with the specific problem helped by his charity.
No, I don’t. I’m very fortunate.
When he started into his pitch for a donation, I interrupted him to say that I have a policy not to make a commitment over the phone. If he would send me the information by mail, I would take a look at it.
What I did not want to take the time to tell him was that, the last time I successfully talked a charity into sending me their solicitation by mail, I looked them up on one of the many excellent web sites devoted to policing organizations that claim to help those less fortunate. What I found was that they had an absolutely dismal record. Some 93 percent of their proceeds are spent on administration and fund raising. A paltry seven cents out of every dollar donated goes to help the unfortunate people so pitiably shown in their literature. I printed out the information, added a handwritten note explaining that the enclosed explained why I was refusing to give them money, and sent it back in their own envelope.
After that, I will never again give anyone money without the opportunity to check them out.
But back to my caller. It was about then that he stopped trying to pretend he was my new best friend. He informed me that their mailings included a tax receipt, and it was against the law to send them out blank. Could he just put down a minimum amount, say $15.
No, I will not make a commitment over the phone.
Well, he had my record right there in front of him, and I had given $50 dollars last time.
I seriously doubt that. In any case, my policy is now that I will not make a commitment over the phone.
“Are you going to help these people or not?” he asked, loudly and rudely. “’Cause I can’t send this to you if you won’t promise at least a small amount.”
No, I will not make a commitment over the phone.
“Well, then I’m not sending this to you, ’cause we don’t want to lose two dollars of the transaction.”
And he hung up on me.
As a female child raised in the 1950s, I was taught that being nice was a great virtue, that cheerfully and selflessly acceding to other peoples’ requests would make me a good woman. So this sort of exchange upsets me a great deal, and produces large amounts of guilt. I think that’s what they’re counting on.
Believe me, I’m getting over it.