If they’ve been helping to support your cause for 10 years, they might just need a break. Maybe they need a break so that when they do give, it is because they want to and not out of obligation. Or maybe they want to see if someone else will step up this year and cover the gap. Or maybe they want you to broaden your donor base instead of just coming to them.
I never thought about it this way. Execs at for-profit companies are hired for their rollodex and access to their network, why not charities to?
It’s not the charity’s executives so much as it is the members of the board. Sure the directors are supposed to provide direction and oversight, but they’re also there to provide access to a network of donors. If all the charity needs is direction and oversight, it could just appoint a board full of retired bank officers.
I’m not trying to virtue-signal here, but my wife and I donate quite a bit of time (and some money) in activities that we feel provide social benefits. For example, I serve on a volunteer committee(s) that develops national fire alarm codes and standards. I also volunteer as an unpaid instructor for professional development courses that teach people about life safety.
But we don’t round up the purchase price to benefit St. Elmo’s Hospital for Wayward Puppets. That’s corporate virtue-signaling using my money. It’s funny how many corporations try to promote charitable giving by rounding up purchase prices, matching United Way donations, and generally encouraging donations while spending bunches of money on avoiding taxes. (I’m not suggesting that taxes are an efficient way to improve our lives…they aren’t. But they are tax-deductible. And, IMHO, few big companies or celebrities pay their fair share.)
I’ve always been of the same mindset, and I assumed the company was getting a charitable tax break using my money. But I read an article recently in the Washington Post indicating that: (1) charities actually get a lot of money now from these purchase price round-ups; and (2) it is totally illegal for companies to get a tax break for these donations because it’s not their money—they are just a pass-through. And any such malfeasance for a public company would come out in an audit—just like them skimping on paying sales tax (for which they are also a pass-through).
To be honest, this seems like a fairly honest and typical reason for not giving. People scroll on their phones all day while they are in the middle of something else. Sometimes you see stuff that if you close your screen for a moment, it’s gone when you come back and you have to take extra steps to get back to it (usually searching specifically for your friend’s profile) without getting distracted by all the other stuff that’s put in front of you on your way there. If we’re talking about Facebook, search itself is wonky now. Many people don’t like to watch videos if they’re too long, or at all. Some people don’t like to “do business” on their phones, they’ll only do it via their desktop browser. Or they don’t have a payment method set up with Facebook - or if you’re not collecting via Facebook, they don’t want to take the time fill out yet another form on a website.
It’s crazy and maddening from the asking party’s standpoint because you’re thinking “How much easier could this be?!” I mean it’s so much easier than however we did it 20 years ago. No paper to fill out, no letter to read, no stamp needed, nothing to send back. But yet people STILL want it to be easier than however it is - and that is IF they see your plea and IF they happen to see it when it’s convenient for them.
And yeah you also get the flipside of that - it’s so easy to ask for money that everyone is asking and everyone has donor fatigue. Especially when there’s a “day of giving” - people are bombarded and more fatigued than ever on that particular day. You can’t win!
IMHO you’re going to have to ask regularly to keep that plea at the front of people’s minds. But not too regularly that they get sick of it enough to be turned off. I think a “giving goal” works great in this case. With a set amount you’d like to get by a set time, that will provide a specific thing for your charity. It gives you a reason to continue to re-post over time and shows people that others are donating. If everyone just gives a little bit then the goal can be reached and we can all do this together!
But, I’m not a charity professional. I’m just someone that stares at Facebook all day and does contribute a LOT to charities. I made a rule for myself that if friends ask, I give. $20 each time. I don’t want my friends to feel like the OP does. But I am sitting at my desk all day so it’s easy and comfortable for me to donate. I do know that if I don’t click that button now, it’ll be gone and I’ll forget about it. So I do it right away. If I DID miss it, I would be sure to hop on board if I saw their “giving goal” come up the next day.