If you give money, however little, to a charity they will, on the average, send you a letter a month asking for more. And some operate telephone banks that call you every month or so for more money. If you give them $25/year, it will all be wasted on letters and telephone calls. So I just give to 12 charities and only once a year each. When a charitable boiler room telemarkets me, I ask them which of my 12 existing charities I should cut off in order to have some for them. That usually ends the conversation. If my contribution levels were identical, I would give 8% of my annual charitable contributions to each, but I have some favorites and they get more, and therefore, some get less. But if I do not like a chaity at least $250/year worth, they get none.


I hate to hijack this thread, but, you have brought up one of my irritations with regard to charitable giving. I have often given a very modest amount to some worthy but low on my priority list only to see them spend more that the amount I donated on postage, mailing labels, dimes, note pads, catalogs, etc. I wish there was an effective way to get off of these mailing and telephone lists. I often get the impression that those making the telephone calls aren't able to take names off of the list.

Bob

Bob