Aspca

I don't want this to be interrupted the wrong way, but I am noticing I am getting allot of advertising, promotional material .... whatever you want to call it from the ASPCA, WWF, Anticruelty Society.
I get calendars (so far I have received 6 for 2003), mailing labels, cups, paper...
I'm a member of the above mentioned and maybe it is me and this stuff doesn't cost anything to mail or produce (yeah, right)...but I would rather have the money go to the animals than to this promotional stuff. I wonder what the percentage of our donations are marketing vs animal care.
I guess I have to look closer next time and maybe check a box and request a stop to the little memo pads and request my share of that promotion goes towards helping an animal.

Does any of that make sense? :confused:

It makes perfect sense to me - I have always felt the same way, and as much as I love and adore animals, I hate getting inundated with "guilt-inducing" mail from all the different organizations. I was just thinking the same thing today when I received my 5th package of sample Christmas cards from Ducks Unlimited, of which my husband and daughter are members. Supposedly the sale of these cards benefits the ducks, but how many times do they have to send me this huge, expensive letter crammed with sample cards? I had decided on the first mailing to go ahead and order some, so they're just wasting their money. (I also think it's ironic how they need money to ensure that there will be enough ducks to be killed - I just can't figure that one out.) I wish you could just send your (generous) contribution once a year and have them leave you alone and not waste all the precious contributions on extraneous mailings. I know you can contact them and ask exactly what percentage of the profits are spent on that kind of stuff, but I've never done that yet.

I know what you mean. My roommate and I have thousands of address labels from the Humane Society, everytime we get them in the mail we moan about it. We wish they would stop sending us address labels and just ask for money.

Thank goodness it's not just me!! I totally know what you mean about the guilt inducing mailings. The trouble with that is, I'm already an animal lover, so seeing these horrible pictures and reading the sad stories usually puts me in a sad mood for the rest of the day. I can only financially donate about once a year(I'm pretty poor), and it seems like I get mailings every week! I look at them and think, didn't I just donate??

It would be better if they kept track of when you donated....then left you alone until that same time the following year, then simply asked for money to help the animals. Just the mere fact of sending all of this stuff out to animal lovers everywhere so often has got to cost a fortune!! :rolleyes:
I've donated to the ASPCA in New York and the Defenders of Wildlife and will have to wait until next year to donate again, so all of the mailings are wasted resources. :(

Some charitable organizations hire outside companies to do their fund raising / mailing. These companies often get paid by the piece for mail they send. They can be very motivated to ignore duplicate names, or include current contributors in mailings for new memebership/money.

Or, they send mailings 6 times a year for a once-a-year renewal, another real waste. :mad: But the idea the flooding mailboxes with junk to get a small percent of response seems to win out over the idea of a carefully planned mailing.

In the world of charitable organizations, this mailing problem is well known. Fraud and waste is a constant battle. Some groups just give up trying to prevent waste, and give in to over-kill mailing mentality.

We shouldn't give up, however. Write to the group and tell them your opinion....Remember, PetTalk has lots of voices - we would be hard to ignore!

Why not donate annonymously throught a direct, cash donation to a shelter? Or don't fill out your address. When my grama died I had to mail TONNES of letters saying "please remove this name from your mailing lists".. I don't know it might be a possibility :D

I also get many letters from the Humane Society. It all started after I adopted Storm from them. He'll be 7 in January so it's almost been 6 years. They send me address labels, calendars, and now Christmas cards. I can't afford to donate all the time either. They even called me one time too. I love animals but this is just too much.

I have like an entire COLLECTION of mailing labels, lol. Actually, I like the mailing labels, I use them all the time. It does seem like a bit of a waste for what they spend to mail all of this stuff though. I've donated to a few of them, but I admit throwing most of them away.... I joined the NWF once (I needed to help save the wolves! ;)), and I'd like to donate there again.....I'm going to donate to Best Friends again sometime also. I can't donate to *all* of them, and well, if I haven't heard of it, how do I know what my money is really going to?

When I do decide to send money in, I mark on the return "stub" and on my check - then I highlight so they can't miss it, that I DO NOT want my name put on any mailing list, and I DO NOT want it sold to anyone else. If I start getting many solicitations that can be traced back to their organization that I will stop all future donations. So far this seems to have worked - to some extent - but I'm sure there are the organizations that just do mass mailings and don't care who they are sending to. I know a good one for selling your name was the National Wildlife Federation. I used to belong to them, and after that I got solicitations from every animal organization in the world (or so it seemed). I wrote them a letter complaining, and stopped my donations. And since then the mailings have tapered off immensely, so maybe they got the hint.

Also, I do this on everything I send money in for. If I order from a catalog I tell them to take me off their "sell list." If I order online I tell them the same thing. A lot of these companies/organizations make money by selling their mailing lists, and if you don't specifically tell them to take you off, you're automatically on.

I still get many solicitations and unwanted mail, but I'm sure I get much less than if I didn't let them know.

Just some thoughts, every little bit helps these days. :)

Oh, and BTW, a few years back I complained to Public Radio about all the interim pleas for more money. I told them I donate when I can (at that time once a year) and to please not waste all that time and effort during the year. Amazingly, I only got my annual renewal after that - so they listened! I guess I was kind of surprised. :)

What a great tip T&P's mom!! I think I will try that. I hadn't thought of writing on my "gift" to not put me on their sell lists. Jeesh. So much money would be saved if they just sent once a year notices to people who have donated. Think of all the money they could put toward the efforts they are advertising!

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Originally posted by All Creatures Great And Small
I wish you could just send your (generous) contribution once a year and have them leave you alone and not waste all the precious contributions on extraneous mailings. I know you can contact them and ask exactly what percentage of the profits are spent on that kind of stuff, but I've never done that yet.

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Firstly, don't they all know that most animal lovers are broke because they care for animals??? :)

I got an annual report from the Australian Conservation Society and it broke down the money spent on advertising, mailouts etc and the money received by donations, so it was easy to see that they spent over $1 million on marketing - ouch! I think the Cat Protection Society I support does that as well. Maybe your charities do the same thing.

But it is annoying. Sometimes I get three pieces of mail a week from the same organisation and the waste is insane.