Like most people I give to charities, I have a couple I give to on a fairly regular basis:
Doctors Without Borders This is my main charity because we are such a wealthy country and there are so many in the world that don’t get proper medical care.
I was reminded of this today when I picked up my mail from my PO box - all of it was begging letters from charities but not charities I ever donate to.
Three letters, one each from Anglicare, Vinnies (St Vincents) and the Salvation Army none of whom I have ever donated one cent to. I never donate to religious organisations no matter what services they provide.
So how do they get my address? Obviously from one of the organisations I do support, it really, really annoys me.
I don’t remember this happening to me. If it did, I’d be livid. I remember giving my address to a church. I got a letter from a member of the church asking for a donation. The church sent another letter to apologize for that breach. The church member stole the mail list.
Mail lists are valuable assets. Organizations that use them lightly do so at their own peril.
Yes I get lots especially in the run up to Christmas .
I also get letters asking me to up my subscription.( I donate mainly by direct debit )
You can contact these people and ask them to stop sending loads of junk mail .
I do donate to the Salvation Army at Christmas and asked them please not to send me any multiple letters ( to which they have complied )
The worst is Crisis who inundate us with junk mail I can’t remember if I have ever donated in the past to them or not .
I now ignore everything to do with charities as I donate via The Postcode Lottery x two entries and that lot split up all the dosh between a whole string of charities which saves me from all the hassle of deciding. Win with People’s Postcode Lottery | Home
From this, it looks like charitable organizations have to be contacted separately. It also makes it sound like there’s no penalty for them contacting people even if asked to be taken off the list.
All these ‘Preference’ services are a very good idea. However, they all rely on the one very weak link – organisations should submit their mailing lists so that anyone not wishing to receive whatever it is are taken off that list or are not on it.
Possibly there are no penalties for infringing any rules or any penalties are just not severe enough to prevent ignoring of the rules.
All this, together with the scams using our landline and mobile telephone numbers and the internet, which most of us know about and have to tolerate, is making the lives of many people something of a misery and urgently needs stopping.
Australia has a “Do not call” register which works well because of heavy fines for cold callers but unfortunately Pollies and charities are exempt. I have overcome this by giving charities a phone number which just goes to an answering machine however there is nothing stopping them writing to you.
A letter is less of an intrusion but the letters are always of the same format, consisting of three pages, the first page has your name and address and a personalised salutation, the third page has the same details but with a donation form. They also include a prepaid envelope. I put those two letter pages through my shredder the rest goes in the recycling bin.
Actually Anglicare sent me a shopping bag and Vinnies a sheet of return address labels, some other charities send a pen. Presumably these things are to make you donate out of guilt.
Interestingly they rarely call my mobile (not that I give out its number to charities) but those that do call end up being blocked.
I wonder if this would work. This person got rid of charitable junk mail by going to the website of the organizations they didn’t want and requested removal from their list. Then they put a label on the donation they did give that requested to not sell your information.
It worked for this person after a long battle to get rid of the mailings.
Not necessarily Bruce. They could be trawling for names and addresses through the Ozzie equivalent of our Electoral Roll.
Here’s what I do with such letters (not charity letters though) - cross out my name and address, write “Not known at this address. Please remove from your mailing lists.” next to it. Put all the paperwork in the prepaid envelope and post it back to them. It works for me.
Here in the UK we can do that but it’s a case of having to ‘opt out’, if we don’t do that then all details, such as name and address can be taken by anyone who wants them, perhaps to use for a mailing list. I always opt out every year as I don’t wish to be subject to even more rubbish through the letter box by way of ‘junk mail’!
