….Charity Fatigue is Growing
1. It’s impossible to avoid charities these days. They’re on the street, they’re knocking on your doors, they’re mailing you stuff, they’re calling during dinner, they’re sending fund-raising information home from school with your children, they’re on television, they’ve got children selling candy bars in front of the supermarket, and….
2. Charities have embraced the Web as an efficient distribution and marketing tool. What better way to raise money for a cause than by attacking your in-box. Charities have armed people with easy-to-use online tools so they can blast out “please, sponsor me” e-mails to friends, family and colleagues in minutes. Just take your address book, upload it to our user-friendly solicitation tool, and you can spam people for donations in minutes.
3. Charities aren’t coordinated. They’re all acting in isolation, which means you get dozens of groups pursuing you night and day. How come you can’t have one giant charity group ask for a donation? You would get to say “yes” or “no” once, and that would be the end of it - at least until the next year.
4. Isn’t government supposed to be supporting good causes like cancer research? Isn’t that why I’m paying more taxes? Sure, the government has other things to pay for - social services, sending troops overseas, education, health care, etc. but they should have a few bucks left over for charity.
For the official definition of charity fatigue, check out the Urban Dictionary. The Christian Science Monitor has a story on how charity fatigue has seen the number of volunteer declined by one-third in the U.S. since 2005.
Technorati Tags: Charity
June 19th, 2008 at 7:00 am
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