For phone solicitors, I have two responses:

"I have a kidney transplant and only donate to Cleveland Clinic Foundation." (This is true)

"Do you have any idea what you just interrupted?"

We get the same calls. Also, I get e-mails from companies I never heard of. It tells you that if you want your name taken off the list, to "click here". I do that and you have to leave your e-mail. I'm always afraid that, when I do this, they'll send my e-mail to other organizations.

Also, when I get requests for donations in the mail, and I send one, I get requests for them about every 3 months, which makes me not want to donate to them ever again.

I donate to certain charities when I am able, but many years ago I donated to the DAV (disabled American Veterans). Ever since that one donation, I have received 'free mailing labels' from many sources. I do not feel obligated to pay for them since I have never asked for them. They are nice to have, but I haven't ever felt enough NEED to have them, to actually buy them.

Grandma Ava, my brother had a kidney transplant about 5 years ago, done at the Cleveland Clinic. The donor was his son-in-law.

I agree, why is it so hard to hang up? Are we afraid they will think we are rude? HEY - they are the ones who called us to ask for money, to me that is rude.

And don't forget, the mailing labels are great for giving your name and address, like when you are filling in a form for a door prize. Keep some in your purse.

I donate to Salvation Army and I get another request about every week. If they would save the postage.................!

The phone calls and mail make me feel less than charitable. My husband asks callers what % actually goes to the program or cause. By law, they have to tell you. One caller was so proud that 14% goes to the children! Can you imagine! I think some are scammers and need to get a real job.

Everyone sells your address and phone number! Did you know the post office sells your address. Ask them and you will find it true.

I have donated to PBS and get a call or mail every week.

Here in Australia someone is always calling to ask for money or to sell raffle tickets, I do feel sorry that worthy causes have to do this but both my hubby and I give at least $100.00 per month via direct debit to charities. I explain this to the caller, if they still persist I tell them I am the cleaning lady and the "Lady of the House" is indisposed for at least six months.

My husband would engage them in a conversation. He said they were spending their money on calls so he would make the call last a looooooong time. They finally quit calling.

yes it is. I bet my phone rang 10 times yesterday. all that junk

Seems like no matter what you do, someone always gets your number. I have caller ID too, and it pops up on my TV screen which is the best thing EVER! We probably answer 1 call in 10 because the rest are callers we don't know. Pretty sad commentary.

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.

Several years ago, I decided to see how everybody was getting my name, so when I'd make a donation, I'd do it in one name, say A. Smith; to another Ann Smith; to another A.B. Smith; Ann B. Smith; A. Betty Smith; and all the variations in spellings I could think of. That way I could keep a paper trail of who used which name, and most likely who was sellling my name to whom. It got so bad, I started refusing them all, and in the case of the more aggressive ones - especially those who used MY phone for THEIR purposes - I'd use their postage-paid envelopes to send them a nasty note telling them why I wasn't donating. Didn't take long to stop the nonsense. Now the problem is telephone calls. I'm on both the Texas No-Call and the National No-Call lists, and it makes precious little difference. They call anyway, because many use rotary dialers that call the next number, whatever it is, regardless of whether it's on the No-Call lists. And I've started not answering calls that aren't fully identified, number and name, and if I don't recognize them, I also don't answer. This could cause some confusion, but that's ok - if they really need me, they'll call back. I'm getting mean in my old age. <G>

Try these to check out charities before you donate, to be sure your money is going where it is most helpful:
http://www.charityfacts.org/fundrais...charities.html
http://www.charitywatch.org/articles/cancer.html
http://www.charitychoices.com/checkout.asp
Lots more like this on the internet!

We used to get a lot of "survey" people calling...when we would tell them we don't want to be involved they say, 'oh please this will only take a few minutes!"

I don't know what world they are from but their 'few minutes' are different than mine.

What we started doing is to say "just a moment please' and they say 'sure'...then we would put the receiver down and walk away and go watch tv or what ever.

Eventually they get tired of waiting and hang up. If they call again I do the same thing and finally they stopped calling completely.

Some just do not understand the meaning of "no" but waiting on a lifeless phone call seems to strick a cord.

A local policeman told me directly that our state and federal governments sell our personal information because it is a matter of public record. All you can do is mark the envelopes return to sender even if already opened. Another help he told me was to return anything you get using their postage paid envelope. Either suggestion is not a quick fix. Good luck. Cyd

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.

I donate a monthly fee to the phone company to have an unlisted number. It really cuts down on those calls. If I do get a call I have a little speech that usually ends with the caller hanging up on me. I also have caller ID.

After reading more responses I have decided that from now on these solicitations are going to be thrown right in the waste basket before I even leave the PO! Fortunately they are being sent to my PO box and not to my home address! I'll just drop some dollar bills in to the Salvation Army bucket during the holidays as I don't need a tax deduction anyway. I was wanting to support my local PBS station because they still continue to offer a good selection of needlecraft shows, but if I do that I will do it anonymously. My dh & I used to like to watch the concerts that would be on PBS occasionally, but it was so annoying to have to spend half the time either listening to the begging for money or having to mute the sound so we don't do that much any more. As to any sort of political agenda affiliated w/PBS, I don't watch any of those types of shows on there so that wouldn't influence me one way or the other.

I have also heard they sell your information. I refuse to donate to any of the organizations that send a nickle or dime and ask me to send it back with more money. If they can afford to send out thousands of nickles and dimes then I figure they do not need what little money I have.

Do you have the "do not call list" on-line service in the U.S.? We have it in Canada and once you register your phone number on-line it is illegal for these companies to call you. I have registered both my home and cell phone number and haven't had a call since. It is wonderful!
May google it and see if you have something similar. Good Luck!

I always check out CharityNavigator.org - they tell you how the charity spends its money and how much the top guy or gal makes. You can bet I am not supporting some charity where the CEO makes a bundle of money. Why should I support some fat cat?

I would bet the Salvation Army upper levels do not make that much. All in all, however, the Army in the US gets about 2 BILLION dollars in donations each year. With which they do a lot of good.

I refuse to donate to PBS - I figure as long as they have enough money to run Lawrence Welk over and over they don't need anything from me. Just glorified elevator music IMHO.
.I miss the old days when they had really good programming - symphonies, ballets, operas, plays, independent films. Now all they have practically is old people singing doo-wop. They have figured out exactly what the people who give the most money want to see, and that is what they show.

Yes, we have the do not call list here in the US, but a lot of companies either just ignore it or they are calling because they use an automatic dialer. It gets to where I just absolutely dread it when there is an upcoming election because we get inundated w/calls. Even if you ignore them they are still an invasion on your peace & quiet.

Thanks for this info. I agree about not donating to "charities" that pay their big wigs tons of money.

I used to live in NH, ever since I moved to VT we have got tons of calls that are surveys. Not selling anything, real surveys. From what I think of BGH in milk, to how I feel about the VT court system, you name it.
Of course they never offer to pay for my time...

That's lousy that you still get the calls. We just have to phone and report the company/charity if they do call and they will get a fine.

PBS doesn't share your info. In fact it sends its own program infornation over the internet.
I think the Salvation Army does not share either, or they ask first.
But March of dimes does. They are so large the lists are a valuable commodity.
Usually charities ask if they can share.

Jeannie

We have a selected few charities that we donate to. We get lots of other solicitations in the mail, but just toss them without opening. If the charities we do donate to ask too often, we toss that request too and just wait for the next one.

As to the phone, I just interrupt and say I'm not interested. Most of them will keep talking anway, when they do I just hang up. It's my time, my dinner getting cold, and my husband who's getting aggravated because yet another soliciter has called.