As a matter of fact, NO, you can not count on me

I'm sure I've written on this subject before, but given a deluge of mail that I went through over the last week (and more still stacked to go through), I'm back again to complain about charities that just won't let up on their begging.

Over the last few years I've gone out of my way to make some charitable contributions, mostly in memory of my wife, to causes she liked, or that I like, or that her parents like.  Most have probably been good by me in not coming back to me with solicititations in the mail, but some are just downright obnoxious with the continued pleadings for more and more money.  PBS stations especially, but not just them.  Autism charities, American Cancer Society and others.  Give once and they'll spend every dime you gave them begging you for more.

I wish there was a way to donate completely anonymously.  I would if I could, but I suspect they'd just put the money I gave them into bothering other contributors and begging them for more money.  The amount that I know these charities are spending on mailings and phone solicitations for more money quickly approaches what they claim to be the minimal amount of money they need to help someone and yet they spend it begging myself and others for more, more and more still.  I'd rather see them spending the money on the causes I donated for.  When I see or hear of real results from those contributions I might be moved to give again, rather than having been iritated enough to not want to give for a long, long time since I feel they've wasted my contribution begging for more.

There's some other causes that I wish I could contribute to, and think of contributing a little to, but at the same time I just can't hand money out everywhere no matter how seemingly worthwhile a cause is.  Now, looking back, I almost wish I hadn't given to some of these notorious beggars in favor of donating to some of these other causes.

Finally, there's one cause that I might be tempted to donate to that I must admit to being well torn on.  A private school that I was sent to as a child is apparently in pretty dire financial shape.  The amount of money they claim to need is not insignficant, though I must admit to looking at the request that they sent me and thinking that knowing some of the other alumni and their families, my initial reaction is that some of the people that I went to school with, and especially their families, should be in line to donate long before I could possibly get there.  I realize I have no way of knowing the financial situations of these other individuals and their families, but from what I recall of when these fellow students were attending classes, their families were fairly well off compared to my family and many others.  Making a tax-deductible contribution to a worthy charity is something they should be able to do fairly easily, though I'm not sure it will happen.  As my mom pointed out, there's also a huge mothership that could sink money into keeping that school open if they choose to, but their own priorities seem to be elsewhere.  Too bad it'll be so long into the future that they'll be wondering why they haven't attracted a future generation to donate to the bigger cause as they may very well lose their opportunity to keep providing a quality education -- with additional courses that aren't covered in public schools -- to those future generations.