Charity mailings

Charity mailings
With the challenges to our economy, you may receive more requests from charities than you ever have. My mailbox is certainly full of charity requests. Allow me to make a few observations and a suggestion.
When a national charity sends out a fundraising package they will spend about 50 cents on each item. If they mail to 100,000 people, that mailing will cost $50,000. In general mailings of this sort achieve about a 2% response rate. At best, 2000 people will send money to that charity. If all 2000 send in $25 each, that will total $50,000…just covering the cost of the mailing.
So, why do charities send these mailings? The main reason is that when you respond, that charity can move you to the special list of folks who are responders. Suddenly they have your number! Responders will get more frequent mailings. Instead of once-a-year, you can expect mail monthly, because you have responded! It may cost a charity $100 or $1000 to find a generous donor, but that donor may give as much as $5000 over the next few years, so many charities see this as a legitimate expense.
May I make a suggestion that will save you some junk mail and the charities you value some mailing cost? Carefully decide which charities you wish to donate to and send all the others a polite note requesting that they remove your name from futures mailings. You can even use their postage-paid envelope to do so if they send one. Instead of sending small gifts to $10 or $25 or $50 to many charities, give larger gifts to just a few.
In the process you’ve done the charities you value a double favor. You’ve moved yourself to their short list of really valuable donors, and you’ve saved many charities some overhead expenses.
Many charities will ask for your help. Decide where you most want to help and then give generously to those charities doing good work in that area.

Pastor John Adams,
Hauser Comunity Church