Dear Charities

It's November, and that means the onslaught has beung of appeals for donations from countless charities.

So charities, if I haven't donated to you before,

• Save your donors' money and stop sending me notepads, calendars and address labels.  
• Don't include a nickel or a dime and tell me that I can save the world for only % cents/day.
• If I donated to you 25 years ago but not since then, stop hitting me up for money. Mercy Corps, I'm talking about you.
•  If I let my "membership" expire years ago and didn't renew it, stop sending me 'reminders' to renew. Sierra Club, this means you.
• I don't want your crappy gifts. Use your donors' money for the purpose you claim to need money for. 
• Don't bother including tearful stories about little kids with cancer or animals in distress. I already have several charities to which I donate generously every year, and your sappy pleas for funds won't work.
• I already have enough address labels to last me five lifetimes. The same goes for note pads.
• I make my own calendars using my photographs, so anything you send me goes directly into the recycling bin. 
• I decided long ago to donate more money to a small number of organizations, rather than just a few dollars to lots of charities. 

One reason I refuse to donate to new organizations is that I don't want to receive still more e-mail and snail mail demands for funds. I also don't want my information sold/rented/traded to other non-profits so they, too, can hit me up for money.

So if you really are in such desperate need of funds, how about using what you do have wisely? Stop printing and mailing unwanted items to potential donors, and use your donors' money to support the causes you claim to support.