No good deed goes unpunished....

[athena53]

I may check into a donor advised fund. Given my history and position in the community I'd rather not give anonymously (BTW, I'm not looking for recognition either) but would like to see the charities use the money I give for the work that they do rather than more solicitations.

You can put your name on donations for payments out of DAFs (Donor-advised Funds). I put all of my church pledge for 2015 into the DAF in 2014 when I knew I'd be in a higher tax bracket (retired May, 2014). The checks get sent to the church quarterly, with a note saying that it's from me and to be used for the Building Fund. So, you can be pretty specific. Anonymity is just one option and I use it frequently.

DH and I give mostly to the church and to a local women's shelter. The women's shelter isn't too bad with mailings and they respect our wishes that they not call us.

The other donations I make tend to be for charity athletic events, either my participation or someone else's. I donate on-line and they tend to generate endless e-mails, but they all get my spamcatcher address. That keeps them out of my "real" e-mail In Box.

 

[Totoro]

We found an effective way to get rid of all the junk coming from charities. Instead, we get personalized, hand-written thank you notes.

The solution: Give them large amounts of money.

+1

If you give up to a few hundred, you'll be treated as "retail". They have their automated campaigns and CRM systems to keep costs down ..

In two cases, I established a connection with the CFO of a (small) charity. Then, when you decide to give them money (low thousands), call/mail up the CFO and say: "I want to donate xx, but can you make sure I do not end up on any contact or mailing list? I would rather have you invest the resources and time in your work". Preferably alongside a glowing appreciation of everything they do.

It works.

The larger the charity, obviously the higher the entry fee

 

[Cobra9777]

Seems many here are easily irritated. Post-gift solicitations are a quite small price to pay for the value I place on my gifts.

My thoughts exactly, as I perused this thread. Of all the irritants in my life, this is so far down the list that it's roughly on par with waiting for hot water to reach the utility sink in the garage.

 

[W2R]

My father gave to the republican party in 2000. He died in 2002 and even today he gets mail asking for donations. In 2012 I finally think I got thru to the right person on the telephone to let them know that he died 10 years ago, and the phone calls appear to have stopped (we will see in 2016). So yes it appears contributing to a political candidate is like checking into a roach motel.

I have never given a dime to any political party, but I am a registered voter with one of the two major parties. They apparently got my contact information from the voter rolls. They send me tons of junk mail begging for donations and call me on the phone a lot. I guess this is what one has to endure in order to vote in the presidential primaries.

Nobody likes this, and nobody likes getting spam snail mail either. But nothing has been done about it by either party. They ought to be working on THAT instead of spending time, effort, and money, in trying to milk me for donations.

 

[Texas Proud]

I have had the same problems as others have with the charities I have contributed... I usually send a note saying if I get any other solicitations to donate more I will not donate to them again... so far, ZERO have met my request....


The worst I can say is the local woman's shelter.... they had a news bit on at 10PM saying how their food shelves were empty and needed food or money... just come by and donate....

I drove by the next morning to drop off a check... NOBODY knew anything about the news clip and I got the run around... I waited 30 minutes to get somebody to give a check... told them my requirements... then every 4 weeks for the next 3 years (or more) I got a package in the mail that had to cost some good money asking for me to donate since the 'need' was so great... they had to have spent more money on these mailings than I donated...

The only group getting money now is our local church.... I have to go to the bank and get a $100 bill so DW can give it to the preacher... not to the church...