First, are you sure you want to donate to PBS? It's virtually controlled by George Soros now. It is no longer a truly public television, but a very liberal political mouthpiece, where only one side of the story is told. How discouraging is that? Yes, the charities DO sell your name and address, even if you ask them not to. I have a new policy... if an unsolicited solicitation comes, I feed it to my shredder (and it is very well fed these days).
MOD is fairly high on the list of charities that spend more on fundraising than they do on actual charity. There are sources on the internet where you can go and check them out. Salvation Army is good - very high ratio of service to expenses.[/quote]
You can't be sure that Salvation Army has a high ratio of service to expenses. They are a church and so they don't make their financial records public as other non-profits have to. They may have a good ratio, but you can't know for certain.