Quote:
Anyone who calls me with some kind of telemarketing gets instantly removed from my list, and informed of that fact


Excellent, another cranky person.
I'm glad it's not just me!

Hey, if more people were like us, maybe telemarketing would go away!

Actually, not.

It turns out that telemarketing is THE most expensive form of fundraising available. Typically the telemarketing companies get to keep 80% of what they raise, funneling 20% back to the charity which then adds its own overhead. Actually it's not extremely unusual for a charity+telemarketing to keep 98-100% of the money!

Anyway, CNN's tips for avoiding charity scams starts out with #1: Never respond to telemarketers or e-mail solicitations, as either method indicates that particular charity organization has "some serious priority flaws" (i.e., siphoning off most of the money before it goes to the actual cause)

In another related rant, I stopped giving to United Way about 10 years or so ago after widespread corruption was revealed within the organization (wait, more). Even though they have long since cleaned up their act (so they say despite the fact the corruption links in the previous sentence are from 1995, 1999, 2002, 2005), I looked at what they do and decided I was better off giving money DIRECTLY to the EXACT charity I wanted instead of funnelling it through United Way first. Less Middlemen == More Value to the Needy.

Your Crankiness may vary.


[Edited to add more UW corruption links]