Stop asking me for money

When it comes to charity, I'm a bit like a swing voter. I don't have a particular charity I devote my money and attention to (although I am partial to making people aware of World Bicycle Relief) - I just occasionally donate money to whoever takes my fancy at the time.

What the charities do after that point dictates whether or not I consider giving them money again. Take, for instance, World Vision and Medicins Sans Frontieres. Both of them responded to my giving them money by sending me mail roughly every month asking for more.

Now, for some reason, this has put me right off both charities. It's probably related to the fact that I'm okay with giving money to buskers, but hate giving it to beggars. I'm happy to see you doing something and give you some money towards that, but if you turn to me with your hand out and say "I need money, give me some!" I'm likely to ignore you or tell you to go away.

And, it has to be said, that although I'm reasonably sure they have different funds going towards their operating costs than they do going towards their charitable endeavours, whenever I get another glossy begging letter in the mail my immediate reaction is "surely, if they spent less money on stationery and postage, they would have more money to help people - is this what they spent my donation on?" Because, quite frankly, I feel like I've contributed to their letter campaign, rather than their field work.

I know the justification is that people who have already sent them money are more likely to send them more - but, darn it! I don't want to sign up for another six months of begging letters. I possibly would give you more money if you just left me alone.

So, as much as I actually like what Medicins Sans Frontieres does, and would happily continue to support them, I'm not going to. I'll give my money to a charity that doesn't send me a letter every month saying how much it needs my $100 donation.

World Vision was worse. They started doing these horrible gimmicks like sending you a packet of seeds and asking you to send them back with money. That really ticked me off, because I felt like they were trying to manipulate me. You don't want to steal things from a charity, and keeping something they asked you return felt a bit like stealing...

Please, people. Send me something maybe every six months to tell me what fantastic work you are doing, and I'll probably feel like I want to be a part of it. Send me a letter telling me how much you would like me to send you money, and you may as well push me away. It has the same effect.