I realize that not all charities do the things that annoy me. However, lots of charities do indeed take the approach that I find frustrating. So if I’m thinking about donating to a charity, I have two options:

OPTION ONE: ask the charity all about their privacy policy, contact policy, etc. Make special requests so that I won’t get additional funding appeals in the mail, a calendar at the end of the year, or a Christmas card that just happens to include a postage-paid donation envelope. Make sure they won’t publish my name in a people we want to thank advertisement, or on some stupid Wall of Donors. Make sure they won’t sell, trade, or otherwise share my personal details with other businesses or charities.

OPTION TWO: Donate through CanadaHelps, and set the privacy options the way I want them. Easy, no?

For me it’s a no-brainer: I like the CanadaHelps approach. As a donor, I will choose whether I want to allow an organization build a relationship with me or not. If I want to get involved with a particular charity, I know how to do that.

Now, I must say that I am impressed with Poetry Gabriola these days, because it seems well-organized. Well-organized things make me happy. I’m even happier to hear that you don’t make those annoying phone calls or send piles of crap in the mail.

If you want to have a better chance at convincing grumpy burned-out people like me to join Poetry Gabriola, you could do that by putting a privacy policy page and a contact policy page on your website. Also, you could explain exactly how it helps your organization (in terms of funding) when an individual becomes a member. Oh, and on your contact policy page you could explain that you won’t send calendars (oh MY I hate unsolicited paper calendars) or other nonsense in the mail. Tell potential donors exactly where the money goes, and show how little of it goes to mailing stuff to the donor list each year.

Oh dear. That was a bit of a tangent, wasn’t it?

Happy New Year to you, too. Cheers!

FYI Canada Helps takes a 4% transaction fee. It isn’t much, but it is a $4 fee on a $100 donation …

hp

Thanks for reminding people that they can donate to a Gabriola charity through Canada Helps.

To be fair, though, not all charities solicit from their members, make those annoying phone calls or send piles of crap in the mail. Poetry Gabriola, for example, seldom sends material to it’s members, and never phones. However, we think it is essential to build relationships with our members, and we are consequently able to cite a statistic of 352 active members in the organization when we are applying to public sector funders. So it is very useful to us to know who our member-donors are.

Likewise it is statistically useful for PGS to issue tax receipts directly to donors.

The options offered through Canada Helps are great, though. And I thank you again for reminding everyone. (Do you know if they take a cut?)

Happy New Year!

Hilary