Before 9/11, I VOLUNTARILY donated a substantial amnount of $ for a Walk-a-thon to fight leukemia.
Then 9/11 came around. It seems like everywhere I turn I’m being hit up for victims funds. At work, can you give $5, at the grocery stores, would you like to donate a dollar, etc etc EVERYWHERE I GO!!! Which I really don’t have a problem with, these are desperate times, though the amount of money raised apparently is incredible.
But now I get THIS announcement: Lee Jeans and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation are having a “denim” day at the office Friday. Everyone that wears denim should donate $5 to the cause.
Jesus H. Christ. That’s casual Friday. They kind of have us trapped, don’t they? Wear jeans, your out $5. Dress in slacks, your an asshole. Look, breast cancer is a horrible disease. I just don’t feel compelled to donate money to it at this time. I mean, I have to stop SOMEWHERE!!!
My wife puts up with this crap all the time with the United Way, who are ALWAYS hitting her up for money, and if you don’t pay, they have ways of making you look bad.
LOOK, enough is ENOUGH!!!
If I feel strongly enough about a cause, I WILL DONATE ON MY OWN. Thank you.
Charity is about giving, and feeling good about giving to a cause you believe in, and helping those in need. It is something you should do discreetly and anonymously- not by being bullied or shamed into giving money!!!
Leukemia-Lymphoma Society- my donations are NOT a license for you to send me your godammned junk mail!! Is this what you are wasting my money on??? I thought my money was going to a cure!
No, telemarketer, I do NOT want to give money to the fucking Police Fund. Can’t you see I am trying to eat my damn dinner? And how do I know you are not a scam artist?
Excuse me, would you guys mind GETTING OFF THE FUCKING STREET INTERSECTION WITH YOUR HATS before someone runs you over???
No, I will not be guilted by cute 8 year old girls standing in the lobby asking me if I want to buy girl scout cookies every time I go to K-Mart. I already gave to my co-workers kids football, baseball and basketball teams!!! Don’t your parents have ANY fucking money??? And by the way, those hoagies I overpaid you for last month really sucked!
LEAVE ME ALONE!! I CANNOT TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!
Give. It’s the right thing to do. But do it on your own terms.
I’m tapped out too. If I come across any more money, I’ll know where the donation locations are, thankyouverymuch.
I’m also feeling bad about the victims of the other bin Laden-related terrorist attacks… they aren’t seeing a penny of that money (that I know of). I just hope it is going to help those who need it, once they get it all sorted out.
I SO totally agree with this. I made a donation to the Shrine Circus earlier this year, and ever since the number of people calling with their hand out has increased by a factor of twenty, and that’s a conservative estimate. I tell everyone that I contribute to the charities of MY choice and that I’m done for the year. I’m polite and soft-spoken and I say goodbye before I hang up, but I will not be donating to anyone who works from a sucker list.
Finally, the Shrine Circus called again and I had the distinct pleasure (again, politely and softly) of telling them, "I won’t be helping you folks out. And here’s why. My last donation to you was the first charitable contribution I have ever made that wasn’t anonymous, and I was immediately deluged with requests for contributions from a bunch of other organizations. It’s obvious that you have sold my name to them, and because of that unconscionable action, I will never donate to your organization again. Please take me off your list."
pumps fist in the air as “we are the champions” plays
Even if they didn’t make money off circulating my name on a sucker list - even if they just share lists with each other for free as a matter of mutual back-scratching - still, how DARE they?
Ann Landers was right. No good deed goes unpunished.
Vinnie, I understand your frustration about everyone soliciting donations. I felt like a jerk last week because I refused my oil change place $1 to place a flag on my rear window. However, just to let you know, the Breast Cancer denim day have been taking place for several years now.
These donations are given toward breast cancer research, education, screening, etc.
Yeah, I’m sure you’ve given until it hurts. Here’s the thing, though…
I’m pretty sure you’re in a much better position than most of the individuals who lost, in some cases, their only source of income. Charity is about giving out of the kindness of your heart. This situation is less about giving to a cause that, although unquestionably worthy, may have $$$ skimmed from the top for mailings, salaries, etc. It’s about coming together as a nation and accepting a small amount of burden to help those who are struggling to deal with a tragic burden that affects them more than (hopefully) you’ll ever know.
If a fireman was standing next to you sifting through rubble and desperately needed a pair of gloves, I’m sure you’d immediately stop what you’re doing and buy him or her a pair. Even if it was your last $10. The difference between the charities mentioned previously in this thread and giving to a 9-11 relief fund is both magnitude and immediacy. So much is needed so fast, that the only way to meet the desperate need is by giving often and making some sacrifice in your daily life for the cause.
That is why I will dump whatever’s in my pocket (lint excluded) into any RESPECTABLE 9-11 relief effort. That is why I believe everyone who reads this thread should do the same. Because I see my son, my wife, myself in the image of every distraught victim of terror that that flashes across my television screen.
We’re having the same promotion here at work but it is a “western day”. You are encouraged to wear denim and wester shirts for $5. First, I already work in an office that is casual every day. Second, I don’t own any “western” shirts. Third, I think that breast cancer research is over-funded in comparison to other diseases.
If it wouldn’t expose me for as a complete asshole, I’d wear a suit on that day.
You the man, Vinnie! You the man!!!
One of the really popular but seemingly legal scams around here is conducted by none other than the Florida Highway Patrol. Florida law is explicit about solicitors ceasing all calls to prospective donors once they’ve been instructed to remove names and/or numbers from their calling lists.
The FHP gets around this by hiring some seemingly random and arbitrarily large number of funraising organizations that take turns calling at the most inopportune time.
This way when you tell the clown to remove your name from his list, there are a stack of other organizations stacked right behind waiting for you to resume your dinner.
Vinnie I LOVE YOU!!!
Right now I DONT have any spare cash and I am getting tired of hearing the give give give chant
I have a choice between the bank and charity… the bank wins coz they send their enforcers out …
Besides I dont see the addresses for the charities I WANT to donate to listed on these beg sheets and radio telethons… like the New York Humane Society, NYASPCA, AIDS charities in NY, elderly charities…
Congrats Chef Troy! I woulda cheered you like no tomorrow to have heard that speech live!
Another thing I always do when approached on the phone is to inquire if the person calling works directly for the organization (e.g., the police/firemen/etc.) or a professional fundraising company. You’ll discover a depressingly large percent of the time that it’s the latter. You should then ask, “What percent of my donation is going to go to the cause, and what percent to the fundraising company?” In almost every case, the VAST majority goes to the fundraising company - we’re talking 99 cents on the dollar here, and I am NOT exaggerating. I usually then say, “Gee, I think I’ll walk my donation down to the police station/firehouse/etc myself, just to make sure that ALL of it gets to them.” Heh heh, not that I was ever going to give them any money (see above) but it’s a source of pleasure to me to let them know that not EVERYONE is oblivious to the scam they’re pulling.
Fucking leeches. And yet it’s hard to get too mad at them, because the causes willingly make faustian bargains that allow these mephistophelean telemarketers to hide behind the causes’ good names, just for a smidgen of money that they don’t have to exert any effort to get.
I’ve found that the other charities aren’t hitting me up right now–but, alas, I hear that they are really hurting. The economy was doing a number on giving before 9/11, and now people are sending their charitable donations to WTC/DC disaster-related causes. I feel pretty sympathetic.
However, that doesn’t change the bottom line chez Cranky. We don’t have much more to give, and we’ve already got our regular contributions spoken for.
I’m with Chef Troy on the fundraising companies. Some of the most obnoxious, aggressive, barely-on-this-side-of-honest appeals I’ve gotten have come from those fundraising companies. I loathe them and I don’t care if it was my own mom using them to ask for $$, I wouldn’t send a freaking dime.
Southern, I am flattered by your charity idea to the Slayer Fund, but I would venture to say that people’s money would best be spent elsewhere.
Cranky, glad to se I could survive a Pit OP without you threatening to kick my ass!
Your right, Macro, I would be compelled to help. That’s my point- you should deep down be compelled to help, not be high-pressured into doing so, that’s what charity is supposed to be!!!
Hate 'em, hate 'em, hate 'em.
But I hate to not give just because of them.
So I send a money order without the “sender” info filled out.
They get the money.
I get a good feeling and receipt for the tax deduction.
I don’t get my name on any lists.
I too hate the charities that sell your name. Last year I joined the World Wildlife Federation, and now not only do I get junk mail from them once a month, I get junk from every conservation charity imaginable. HELL-O! Your supposed to be conservationist, do ya think ya could waste a little less PAPER! And why do they sell my name, making it less likely that I’ll give to them. WTF
And then I heard about a local WTC scam. Today, Oct 4, resturants are holding a “fundraiser”. What does this consist of? Donating profits, like the movie theatres did last week? NO! They will 1)donate their lousy $2 covercharge (and make it back fivefold on drinks) or 2)Ask their waitstaff to donate their TIPS for the day. Let me get this straight this so-called “fundraiser” is actually going to make YOU money, and screw you staff at the same time? Fuck you, you greedy bastards. I’ll buy a $20 bottle of booze, get trashed at home and send the other $30 I woulda spent at the bar to the victims.
As an aside, this month’s Playboy Playmate goes to school in my town, and works at one of the aformentioned establishments.
I agree with the OP to a point. I work in a retail drugstore, which happens to sell lottery tickets. I ask as many people to donate to the 9-11 fund as I can genreally stomach. I say it that way becasue when you spend all 20-100 dolalrs in your pocket on damn lotetry tickets and have the AUDACITY to say I don’t have anything to give to it I get mad. Asshole you just spent all that damn money on a CHANCE to win money and you don’t have a dollar to give where it is needed??? Most of the others at work have stopped asking for this exact reason. Its frustrating to hear that sort of excuse when you buy those chances at money and have nothing left. Talk about the ultimate slap in the face!
I hav eonly given to a telemarketing charity ONCE, and got put on a sucker list. Never again. At least i didnt give any money, it was only my spare clothes, etc, but it was easy to see when all the phone calls started to arrive…
Whenever I see the folks in the middle of the intersection asking for money, I promise myself to donate to the next charity I see which has set up a stand which is NOT in the middle of traffic but in a mall or some other place which is not a publib danger and nuisance, just to encourage proper behavior. needless to say I do not find one before i forget about my promise.
Here is what to do if a charity calls you while you are eating dinner… (Also great for telemarketers)
Say this, “Oh, I think you guys do great work and I have always wanted to donate money to your cause, but someone just came to the door. Can you wait a second while I see who it is?”
Then you put the phone down and finish eating dinner. Thirty minutes later if the caller is still there (believe it or not, they will wait that long for a donation/sale) tell them to get a life and stop bothering you. Then hang up. Works every time.
