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vicrider

Reaching a point of charity overload

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Had 7 pieces of mail in PO Box. Two were trying to sell me insurance and five wanted money for their foundation. Not long back when money was more available I'd send something to many of the charity requests that came in but soon...though they claim they don't...they were selling my name on their "sucker" list. Now without being specific today was "wish", matching food bank checks", disabled, senior foundation, and an Indian reservation. Tomorrow would be more of the same. I know almost all of these organizations do good work and most (not all) put the bulk of their money out where it's needed.

 

One of the ones that really fry me is when an organization like a city Fire Dep't will sell the right to use their name in fund raising for a certain amount. When you get those calls to sell tickets to a concert sponsored by a Fire or Police Dep't it means the department giving use of it's name will get $10,000 and the promoter and the bands will split up $200,000. A real scam. I check almost every charity I do give to and see what percentage of funds go to the field and what portion is "overhead and promotion". If they don't have at least 90% going to the field they get nothing from me.

 

Okay, I've vented. I'll also say one of the easiest and quickest ways to toss some money to a "need" is the numbers to text a name like Dorian and directly put $10 into Red Cross for that area and it goes on your phone bill and is hardly noticed with how much phones cost today anyway.

 

Nick

 

Edit to add: I lied. We did get one envelope with our new Membership Card for the National Parks included. Oh wait, just opened it and though I already have a plastic permanent National Park Card and this is a "National Park Conservation Association" paper card and they asked for $25 to carry their card which does nothing. The free card I got as a senior is good at any National Park.

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Yep ... robo-calls from law enforcement agencies, asking for donations to this fund or that one, tick me off the most.

Snail mail asking for donations, TV ads asking for donations, beggars on the street ...

We used to donate to certain charities ... just like you. But the crap that followed every donation just got to be more begging.

 

All just more reasons to hate people in general.

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How about just doing the grocery shopping?

 

You run a gauntlet of charity tables getting to and from the entry. And the digital cashier hits you up for another cause of the week as you pay with your credit card. Then there are the free lance panhandlers that ask for gas money in the parking lot and the homeless at traffic lights on the way...

 

Rocco

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That's funny Rocco. I remember that from when I lived in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Fortunately in our small town there is no panhandling anywhere. No stoplights and only stop sign on main highway crossings is more of a roll through with our limited traffic and no one would have time to hit you up or clean your windshield. One of the things I miss from Sam's Club and Costco was the free samples on every corner of the store. Could go there on the weekend and feed the whole family for free. On Saturdays you could always count on the local Harley Davidson shop to have hot dogs and pop for free and they were just down the road from me.

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I prefer volunteering and donating my time over giving cash to any organization. When I do donate cash it's cash dropped in a bucket. I never send checks or my credit card number. I get very very very few robo calls. So little that I can't remember the last one I got. Likewise I get zero requests for donations in the mail. I closely guard my telephone number, address and email address. When someone demands a telephone number to open an account or to track orders I give my deceased parents telephone number from my childhood. Nobody needs my phone number as long as I have theirs.

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I am an ER nurse, my charity is face to face with the recipient. Having met many homeless people through work, I will not give money to panhandlers.

 

I will also not give money to the red cross, during the aftermath of the tornado in 2013 they were sitting on trailers of food and not allowing others to provide meals for locals and volunteers.

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Younger brother and his teenage grandson were observing a "homeless" panhandler several years ago and the young man felt sorry for him and asked if they could give him some money, brother said "watch this and learn" then went up to the beggar and asked "Got change for a hundred?" beggar pulled out a wad and counted out 5 twenties cool a can be.

I recall back in the "70s reading in the Boston paper about a few beggars in Boston and in Washington DC that were bringing in over a hundred grand a year and lived in good neighborhoods.

I don't listen to those calls or read their mailings, I think they have my name on the "waste of time, don't bother list". If I could just explain to the guarantee extension people that my truck is a 1985 and the guarantee expired before I got it...

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Younger brother and his teenage grandson were observing a "homeless" panhandler several years ago and the young man felt sorry for him and asked if they could give him some money, brother said "watch this and learn" then went up to the beggar and asked "Got change for a hundred?" beggar pulled out a wad and counted out 5 twenties cool a can be.

 

Sad to say it, but doesn't surprise me one bit. I've seen countless stories on tv about fake beggars where they record a "beggar" on the corner collecting hand outs then at the end of the day walks around the block to his nice newer car that he parked a block away, pops the truck and gets out his clean clothes and changes then gets in and drives off.

 

I don't mind helping someone if I know for sure they need it and they are not fake, or just plain lazy and would rather beg than work. But if they are going to do it because they simply don't want to work, are fake, or are gonna just buy booze or smokes with the money then they aren't getting a dime from me.

 

As to the robo calls. I haven't had many lately that were asking for money for "charity", but the telemarketer robo calls tryin to sell me something seems to have got worse in the past couple months. I bet I get at least 8+ per day now. Really been pissing me off lately mad.gif

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I should add that what prompted brother to tell me that story, as I was driving him to a VA appointment we passed a beggar on a corner with crutches and an hour or so later passed a burger joint about 1/2 block away from that corner with the crutches laid up against an outside wall while the guy was on his lunch break.

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They are hitting cell phones more & more now though. I'm old fashioned and gave up cell phones 19 years ago, but my Mom has one and now she's starting to get a few robo calls on her cell for the past few months. And she's 75yrs old and doesn't give her cell number out to hardly anyone so no idea how they are even getting it unless the cell companies are selling lists to places.

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I haven't had a land line for at least 10 years. I get several a week on my cell. I go a few days at a time without any calls, then I'll get a few each day for a while. If you can put up with it, let the message drone out. At the end, there's usually a "If you wish to be put on the 'do not call' list, press 2" type message.

After doing that a few times, the number of robo-calls dropped dramatically.

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I've done that "wish to be removed" thing before, but stopped doing it awhile back because I read an article that said sometimes that just verifies you listened to the message so you are put on more lists. No idea what to believe anymore these days lol

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Some RoBo calls are coming from automated dialers. Best thing is to not answer if you don't recognize the number, 2d best thing is to hang up as soon as you recognize it as a RoBo. One thing that stops scammers is to get the # of the local PD or DA (or their hot line if they have one). When you get a scammer, tell them you just got an important call that you need to take, ask them to call back in 5 or ten minutes, giving them the number from PD, DA or hotline. This tip was given to me by the fraud section of the county DA's office.

 

We only donate money to local organizations that we have checked out ourselves. Never give to requests over the phone.

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my android cell phone allows me to screen callers who are not in my contact list. they usually hang up rather than listen to the screening message

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