What's Wrong with Charities

I contribute money to a lot of things that can be called charities: Social-change organizations, feed the children, help animals and wildlife, save the environment, cancer research, political organizations--the list goes on.

It ticks me off that so many of them, when you send them money, reply, in effect, "Thanks, but now send us more!"

And I'm getting even more annoyed at them over a variety of practices: When they want a contribution, their solicitation will come in an envelope that says something like, "Second renewal notice," which I feel makes me look like a deadbeat (okay, only my mail carrier would notice and he most likely doesn't concern himself).

Online solicitations have their own particular tricks. They say something like, "If you could contribute just $3, it would help us. . . " Then you click and go to the contribution page, and is the default amount $3? No, it's $25.

Also, by default you are agreeing to make it a monthly contribution. You have to uncheck a box to make it one-time. I already make monthly contributions to four or five organizations and basically do not want to commit to any more.

I believe in being charitable. My religion (more or less) commands it. However, I have found, lately, that I've been giving to so many groups: usually small amounts, but a few dollars here and 10 or 15 bucks there, it adds up to hundreds before you know it.

And yet, I go online and here's a "Help my campaign" or "Donald Trump has done such-and-such, help us fight back"--and I can't resist.

It's been making me do some thinking about my finances and just what I can and cannot afford. Wish I knew how long my retirement nest egg needs to last me. . . .

Copyright © 2018


Update, March 1, 2018: I've continued to have the problem of contributions being made "recurring" when I did not intend that. I am quite certain that the little box, "Make this a recurring contribution," was not checked, and yet this has happened at least three times. I've responded to that by unsubscribing to emails from those organizations so that there's no danger that I will forget that I should not contribute to those guys. And, where they asked for a reason for the "unsubscribe," I told them about this, and the fact that it's made me very angry. Are they going to take any notice? I doubt it. Still, I feel I've done what I could to punish them for how they (as I feel) tricked me.

Update, July 17, 2018. Another matter I need to mention: If you watch much television you probably have seen long commercials showing kids with cancer, who are in wheelchairs and/or have had their hair fall out due to chemotherapy; or pathetic, abused dogs, in cages or chained up. These ads are undoubtedly effective at tugging at our heartstrings.
However, before you send them money, ask this question: How much do those TV ads cost? How much of my donation is going to program efforts (that is, the work they are supposed to be doing) and how much to fundraising (e.g. TV commercials)? You can find out how much any charity spends on fundraising from a web site called Charity Navigator. Me, I will give to them when I see a notice on the screen, during those ads, saying that all of the work to produce the ads, and the airtime, have been donated.

Three Religions Have This in Common

Fundamentalist Christianity, Fundamentalist Judaism, and Fundamentalist Islam all condemn homosexuality. Their agreement on this point, and most likely a number of other points, does not make them correct. But it does make me wonder why they have this (and presumably quite a few other things) in common.

So here are my thoughts: The molders (and I use that word with much careful consideration, so as to encompass both ancient, historical personages and modern religious leaders) of these religions feel that life needs to be tightly controlled and regulated--presumably by their scriptures and their clergy. So they see life--behavior--as being about a lot of rules, for what we must and (maybe more importantly) what we must not do. What clothes we should wear, how we must wear our hair, what we should (or, more likely, should not) eat. Maybe there is a view of human nature implicit here: we are all wild, savage beasts, and our natures--our lusts and other baser impulses--need control, examination, regulation, corseting.

And what about the people who are drawn to these sorts of religion, who embrace them and gladly follow them? I believe there is a certain personality type that positively likes having a lot of their conduct prescribed. I'm not sure whether this is the same personality type as the "molders" I referred to above, or a complementary type that fits that of the molders like two pieces of a jig saw puzzle.

Well, it's usually believed in modern, western democracies that people should believe and observe what they want. That's fine; but too often the attitude is, "I don't think such-and-such is right, so I am going to try to prevent you from doing it"--whether it is  homosexuality, abortion, or any of countless things which most of us feel a human being ought to be free to do.

Copyright © 2018