I have not paid tithing for over 25 years. I have a few things I donate to now (i.e. Utah food bank, RfM, Jr. League clothing drive, etc) plus various other mail solicitations that come to me with address labels, calendars, and note pads, etc. It is this last group of charities that are starting to become a little bothersome. I have more address labels than I can use in 10 lifetimes and the note pads are starting to pile higher and higher. Still, I feel slightly guilty if I don't send something to them once in a while.

Is there a way to get some of these things sent less often than weekly or monthly? How do you all handle the volume?

I have worked in non-profit all my life and currently manage a conservation organization. Unfortunately, you will need to contact each charity to get them to stop mailing or only mail a certain time of year. They should have sophisticated systems to set up a mail schedule or to cancel.

I find solicitation mailings with calendars, labels, etc. to be very annoying. We do not provide "schwag" in mailings and have moved a majority of our asks to e-solicitations to be less wasteful and cut costs.

What I wonder is: if Gemini gets off a few lists, what's to prevent him from winding up on the list again when they acquire a batch of new names?

Incidentally, be careful about signing "petitions," which may be a way operatives are acquiring names for political lists. Some are legit; others, not so much.

Online petitions are not worth the paper they are not printed on. An infinite number of email addresses can be copied and pasted onto a "petition", and anyone receiving an online petition knows that. They accept them with a bucket of salt.

Online petitions are almost always a way to get you onto a mailing list.

Once you donate to one of the charities that gives swag, I'm convinced they share them with other non-profits.

Also, "non-profit."
"Pre-sorted" can be legitimate first class or junk mail.

If you familiarize yourself with the wording used for junk ("bulk") mail, you'll recognize most of it. I have a cardboard box in a corner, drop most of that stuff in, unopened, and it goes out on recycling day.

My guess is that writing them and asking to be taken off their mailing lists would accomplish little. They buy and trade mailing lists, so if you donate to, say, environmental charity "A" you might wind up on political list "B," child advocacy list "C," and so on.

This time of year you might get some nice calendars though.

I have at least 4 of the 2022 calendars and those started arriving in August!

I suspected that it would not do any good to contact the charities and request they stop mailing me stuff so often.

I think I will try the un-opening idea for awhile and put it right in the shred box.

Mine tend to land in the recycle bin. Rarely even open them. Particularly address labels, inevitably they have the wrong city on them. My zip code has the world believing I live in the city 3 blocks east.

Both my husband's mother and mine had favorite charities they gave to to support the healthcare and education of impoverished children - and I don't begrudge them this. Indeed, it's just about the time of year to give my mother's usual annual donation.

However, like you said, both of their favorite charities inundated them with notepads and address labels, and as far as we can tell, they don't have a "less frequent" mode at all.

Accordingly, we put the kibosh on both. In my husband's case, his mother's dying made them stop. In my mother's case, she's in care, and I'm power of attorney. Although the "gifts" have stopped coming, I just shredded another pile of personalized notepads and address labels we found in her boxes last week - and they included ones for my father too.


I know people consider it important to support these charities, but they prey on seniors, and they never let up. I frankly think the frequent mailings are intended to take advantage of people forgetting that they've already given.


And the "gifts" are supposed to make you feel guilty - after all, they're "giving" you something, but ask yourself this: would you purchase your own *personalized* notepads, stationery, cards, etc., if they weren't sending them to you?

My husband and I still use the same Avery address label sheets we bought for our wedding. They cost between $11 and $16 for 1500 labels on 25 sheets - and it'll take us years to go through all the labels. Best of all, if we move, we're only out our most recent sheet.

And if that ever becomes a hassle, we can certainly hand-write our own return address.


You can try calling these charities to ask them to lower the frequency, but I suspect that your results will be uninspriing at best, and that it's easier to just tell them to take a hike.

Tyson

Funeral homes notify Social Security and the state of residence of the deceased. The state, which maintains voter registration records, updates their records. Sometimes they miss someone who recently moved, or died in a state different from where their voter registration is. Elections are not stolen by dead people voting, no matter how desperately you want to believe that. The number of instances of that happening in a given state and election can literally be counted on your fingers, usually on one hand. [BTW: dying after you voted by mail, but before election day, does not invalidate your vote]. I handled estates for 3 relatives that passed away in Utah. I never received a mail-in ballot for any of them after they died.

Or did you think that if you don't notify SS when someone on SS dies, that they will keep sending checks forever? A lady in Tooele, UT pulled that off a few years ago. When hubby died, she stuck him in the deep freezer, and never told anyone he had died. She kept getting his SS checks. She wasn't found out until she died, and they found hubby in the freezer. So it is possible, but I doubt that works very often.

Incidentally, you seem to have extraordinary difficulty suppressing the urge to insert a political dig into your comment, even when it has nothing to do with the topic of the thread. I'm happy to point out when you pull that stunt.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/27/2021 06:55PM by Brother Of Jerry.

I gladly accept the address labels and notepads, and don't send them a penny. This limits their solicitations to once per year or less.

I would suggest thinking about what issues are important to you, and donate accordingly.

Tyson is right. The gifts are a guilt trip. I don't respond well.

I feel no obligation whatsoever to anyone who sends me something out of the blue. I actually resent it and toss them.
I get so many requests for charitable donations. I gave to none. Instead I picked one close to my heart and support it as heavily as I can. All other requests are already decided as a no. Mine is one that takes care of old dogs and cares for them or finds them new homes. They are usually the loves of elderly who died or had to go to a home or live with relatives who didn't want the dog.

When someone asks, I say I have a charity I support and that is all I am able to do.

How do we get in touch with that particular charity?

Muttville in San Francisco. Was one of the great Dog Lover Doris Day's favorites.

The Muttville adoption application is fairly simple. And adoption fee is waved for seniors.

I adopted the 2 dogs I have now from Four Paws in Cache Valley and so I donate to them.

I never get these calendars or maybe they get tossed because I didn't open them.

I have volunteered with non profits in the persons with developmental disabilities (PDD) field for over 30 years and most of my charitable giving is directed at the organization I work with now. My adult daughter is a client.
Look for a not for profit organization supporting PDD's and give to them. They are always underfunded and/or they have a new program they need funding help for.

Donate
Trash
Burn

"Change" 'name', 'address', etc....

Then, you can still "donate" and not get all the crap.

I always make donations in the name of David A Bednar.

I have his address as 50 E North Temple St, Salt Lake City, UT 84150.

He probably revels in the fact that his church office receives more junk mail than any other GA.

:D

Since leaving the LD$ church in 2006, we decided to NEVER give to a church again. We have since gotten cold on 501C's in general. Several years ago we decided we would send checks directly to those we deemed in need. My wife (an RN) has purchased several bigger ticket items for co-workers who she knows are needy. A couple years ago our four kids decided in lieu of sending Christmas gifts to each other, we all donate to a family fund and submit the name of a person(s) or charity and tell everyone why we chose that. We then draw a few of them and send the money in our families name. It has been fun and we look forward to it so much. I can assure you we are much more satisfied with this experience than with paying tithing, lol.

Choose your donation battles. My uber-Mormon DW does pay tithing, but thankfully, she makes liberal donations to Heifer and other such organizations. I like to help locally, giving to local food banks and stuff. There's no end to whom you can donate, but you have to just be wise to the fact that you need limits, and you need to do your homework regarding the recipients of your money. Goodwill? May be. Deseret Industries? Engh... The LDS church? No!

I got two more solicitations today, one of which was ANOTHER calendar. This time of year pulls at the heartstrings, I know.