And now, a few Andy Rooney-like moments:
I know times are tough all over.
I know more people are in need than in any recent time.
I appreciate the fine work many charities do helping so many people.
I make it a point, each month when I sit down to pay bills, to try to make a donation or two to organization I feel are doing great work.
All that having been said, I have a gripe.
Increasing numbers of charities seem to think they only way to get my attention is to send nickels or pennies taped to their solicitations.
I get the point.."just a few cents a day can make a big difference."
But I do not need the visual.
And the fact is, being sent coins -- or mailing labels or memo pads or even , as one charity did recently, a paid of thin wool gloves -- is not going to make me any more likely to send a charity a donation.
I feel badly when I get such items from charities to which I do not plan to donate.
Yes, I can just mail the coins back, but what waste of everyone's time!
And nobody else wants address labels and memo pads with my name on them. No point in sending those back. So they go in the recycle bin, since my conscience will not let me use anything I'm sent by a group to which I do not make a donation.
I have no doubt charity experts have determined that the coins are effective in nudging people into giving donations, though no analyst has ever asked me about it.
Regardless, the ploy does not work on me, and I really wish they would stop.
Later.
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Hi, Dennis! Some thoughts from your cousin Arlene: Recently I have become less able to donate to charity ("too much month at the end of the money") and I get tons of "junk mail". I let a lot of it pile up, partly because it's a pain to deal with it but also because I feel bad getting rid of it, as if my keeping the letters isn't as hurtful as tossing and recycling. (As I toss and recycle I feel bad but try to say a prayer for the worthy cause.) I do accept the little gifts because these organizations send them at their own risk. I have a glass mug I keep on my kitchen counter where I put the coins, and they've adding up over the past several years. Maybe some day I'll cash them in and actually use that money to donate to some worthy cause.
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