Losing My Spirit of Generosity

I am usually a very generous person, but I am not feeling it this year.

I’m not sure why, but I just don’t feel like donating money anywhere. I know the need is huge, and I still care about the dozen or so causes that I support. But I’m really tired of being hit up for money at every turn. I suspect I feel this way because the need is so great and the demands are so great that I feel that no matter what I do, it won’t make a difference.

I once donated $500, which is a lot for me to donate, to a local branch of a national organization that provides hot meals to the elderly. Before I knew it, I was being asked to donate another $1,500. That did not happen. And then there’s a group to which I no longer donate that in two successive years asked me to donate for either two or three consecutive months, going so far as to include a convenient remittance coupon and return envelope for each of the hoped for donations. That didn’t happen either, and I no longer support this organization.

So far this fall I have received three requests for donations from a local charity that serves the homeless. And while I may feel sorry for the large local homeless population, or as the politically correct term for homelessness is, being “unhoused”, it is not a cause that I support financially. I just don’t. And bombarding me with requests for money isn’t likely to change my feelings about this.

I know it’s just a matter of time before the note cards, calendars and address labels start cluttering my mailbox. And I really hate that nonprofit organizations waste so much donor money on these gifts that I don’t want and don’t need. In all my many years of charitable giving, I have never decided to make a donation because it sent me a calendar or a bunch of useless note cards.

I would love for someone to do a study of donors to non-profit organizations and profile donor reactions to how they are approached for still more money. Do frequent appeals work? Does hitting up those who have recently donated for still more money actually work? Does receiving an unsolicited calendar or address labels generate additional funding?

I would love to know the answers to these questions. In the meantime, I will decide how much, how often and to which charities I will donate. Nagging me for still more donations does only one thing: it irritates me and me less likely to donate.