Donation Time
Tis the time of year.
With the holidays approaching, the mail box is getting filled with bills, Etsy purchases, and requests for money. From organizations that we have previously given money too, and some that we haven’t.
Previously, I wrote about my experience giving money to non-profits last year as Christmas gifts for relatives that we are not especially close too, but feel that we had to do SOMETHING for. And how we settled on giving money to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and to USA Fencing.
Through out the year we have continued to receive for lack of a better term – junk mail from St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. All of it very well intentioned (while I am not a fan of their fund raising techniques, I do believe they are a good organization) but all of it also very off putting. The tone of all of it was always ‘we know you gave us some money, and that was nice and all, but we NEED MORE. To help all the other sick kids. You don’t want kids to be sick anymore do you?’. It sort of gives the impression that it doesn’t matter how much I give them, its never going to be enough, and its never going to matter. And it makes part of me think – what is the point of even giving you a small donation?
Yesterday I opened my mailbox (We have a real mailbox now. On a post and everything. It could use a good spray paint job, but still, its pretty awesome. It especially thrills the husband, which is weird since he rarely is the one to get the mail) and found a letter that had been forwarded to us from our old address. It was from USA Fencing.
In the envelope was a simple 3 paragraph letter that thanked us again for our donation and detailed what it was they did with the money they had received in the last year. How many top athletes they have in the sport and what they are doing to promote fencing around the country. The asking for more money was implied, but it was never actually stated. There was no self addressed return envelope or slip to fill out with your credit card information. It was simply a thank you note (Perhaps they have been reading Polite Post, my new favorite website).
I could care less about fencing. Its not my thing. I don’t get the appeal of it at all. But I find myself thinking that we should give money to USA Fencing again. While it really doesn’t matter to me that 100 kids in the Detroit area got experience in competitive fencing this year, its nice to know what they did with the money. The husband and I briefly discussed this last night and wonder if we picked an Olympic sport that we enjoy more – say track & field – I wonder if their fund raising carries the same appreciative vibe. Or if fencing is able to keep everything so seemingly personalized (the note we got yesterday was once again hand signed by the Executive Director) because they get such a small # of donations. Either way, USA Fencing’s techniques have worked on me. While in contrast I am very hesitant to give money to St. Jude’s again. I am pretty sure St. Jude’s spent my entire donation last year simply on sending me mail to get me to give more money. What is the point of that?
