To be cranky about this fund raising tactic from the British Red Cross??

[Notcontent]

A bulky envelope just came through the door. It's from the British Red Cross and I can see through the clear plastic there there is some sort of note book and pen inside. I remember getting something similar once before. I haven't opened the envelope but I know this is asking for money and the contents are supposed to make you feel obliged to donate.

I guess what I have a problem with this on a number of levels:

• I don't like to feel obliged to donate (when I do, I like to feel it's my choice)
  
• it seems such a huge waste of the charity's monetary send this out to presumably thousands of people
  
• all these plastic pens and notepads will end up in landfill
  

By the way, it says on the envelope "please do not return".

Surely there has to be a better way.

And don't get me started on all the unwanted catalogues being sent to me on a weekly basis - such a huge waste of trees...

[BreconBeBuggered]

You must live on my street. Postie arrived at around 12:30 bearing exactly the same envelope, accompanied by a good inch of catalogues and flyers. No actual post at all.

I presume the Red Cross find this fundraising tactic works for them. I shove the cards etc into a drawer and recycle everything else. The notes do eventually come in handy at some random moment. There's a charity shop nearby if I feel like donating. Responding to appeals only seems to attract further pleas for money, so I prefer to do so anonymously.

[Notcontent]

Yes, I am sure you're right - it must work. But at what cost...

I wonder if they use post code profiling to decide where to send them - "people most likely to respond".

[spongebobsparepants]

yep, I do it anonymously as well, or they never leave you alone, and they waste far more money chasing you then you gave them in the first place.

Recently, in a moment of weakness I did respond to one of those 'text us £3' requests on the door of a service station toilet, and sure enough, multiple phone calls at all kinds of odd times and during work etc asking for more.

[Myearhurts]

YANBU, this sort of thing really gets my goat.

It is wasteful and it's annoying when it is unsolicited. There seems to be a double standard in this country at the moment, larger charities are allowed to get away with high pressure tactics that commercial companies would never be allowed to.

I know quite a few people who now no longer give to the larger charities and focus on local ones instead, because they don't do this kind of thing.

It's all a bit of a shame really.

[pinkie1982]

I do not donate to the Red Cross anymore and never will.

My grandparents had a house fire a few christmasses ago. They lost everything, in the middle of the night they were standing in the street watching their house in flames. The RC turned up with the fire crew with a caravenette in tow, offering them to stay in it if they had nowhere to go. Nice we though. Then they offered to help with the recovery/dealing with insurance on their behalf as they are in their 70s and didn't know which way to turn. The cost of them doing this was not taken from the insurance company and was a seperate bill that they had to pay. My grandad has signed a contract for them to do it, on the night that the house was on fire, not reading it properly and he could not get out of it, he had to pay.
They were old people in a vulnerable position watching over 50 years of their life go up in smoke. They were preyed upon.

I know this organisation does good across the world but this is why I will never donate to them.

[BringYourOwnSnowman]

Wow pinkie - that's really bad.

I got the pack this morning. I have been asking ten for years to take me off their mailing list but never works.

I don't donate to them anymore.

If there's a big emergency I will donate to dec. for other things I prefer local charities. Been totally put off gift aid and donate anonymously.

[Greydog]

We've had, in this last week, the Red Cross pack, cards from Foot and Mouth painters, load of stuff from Great Ormond St, and today a pack from Barnardos. They will go back, with the exception of the non returnable Red Cross stuff, which is in a charity bag - for the red cross. It makes me so angry - if I want to contribute I will. I have several charities I support - these are not among them, so I have no idea where they got my name from

[sickntiredtoo]

So did they charge them for the caravanette or dealing with the insurance?

[pinkie1982]

They didn't stay in the caravanette. My aunt had an empty rental property so they stayed in that.
They had to pay for the insurance dealings through Red Cross. My grandparents asked for a meeting a few days later to clarify what was happening and they were told they could not cancel the contract they had paid. They initially thought the cost would be included in the insurance claim but it wasn't. There should have been compassion, a cooling off period in times of crises but they were very unhelpful and caused a lot of unnecessary stress

[Itsfab]

I got one last week and just opened it. Not a notebook but 2 coasters. And the obligatory pen.

[HedgehogsDontBite]

I thought this was going to be about their tv ad which I saw today which was basically say 'give us your money when you die'. I thought it was in very poor taste.

[MogTheForgetfulCat]

Red Cross are a really persistent bunch - they have rung me almost weekly for quite a long time trying to get me to re-subscribe as a regular donor. It is not going to happen, for various reasons (one of which, although a minor one, is this sort of approach - I really hate getting this sort of bumf through the door; it's such a waste). I have told them numerous times that I am not going to re-subscribe, and why, and still they call...

[MogTheForgetfulCat]

YANBU, btw .

[blackeyedsusie]

I had mine days ago. open keep bits I want throw rest away. silly buggers for wasting money.

[pinkie1982]

Had signed I meant

[Greydog]

And today we've had stuff from Marie Curie cancer research. Another lot to go back

[SwearingOnPhone]

Been there, you're right to complain.

I even had THE MOST appallingly trivialising fund-raising request from WomensAid a couple of years ago (I'd once made a donation and they stuck me on their list), I forget now what it was, but I was apoplectic at the time and I complained in the strongest terms.

[HelpMeGetOutOfHere]

We got that pack last week. It's unnamed just a blank envelope. It was two coasters and a pen and a couple of cards. The pen and coasters are on my desk at work.

It seems silly. I'm sure they can't raise enough from these mail shots to pay for the mail shots?

I won't give by direct debit now as just leads to requests for more money. I do give to charity usually just into the coin collecting boxes though.

[WooWooOwl]

I seem to constantly have a British Red Cross pen hanging around, they send them fairly regularly despite the fact that I've never donated in that way. It does seem like a waste, but it doesn't guilt me into giving them money.

I have donated to them in the past though, years ago I was involved in a fire and the people that came with the fire victim support unit were lovely.

[WetAugust]

I had an envelop of unrequested stuff from Barnardos today. I will give to that charity to enable them to run even more TV adverts than they currently do, which seems to be every advert break.

Doing they realise that this turns off potential donors?

[Greydog]

And to add to our collection - Amnesty International.

[BrieAndChilli]

I remember when I was pregnant and getting a 'baby name' booklet from the NSPCC or some children's charity and basically has thing like
Sophie - abused by her uncle, thomas - let to starve in his own urine for 2 months etc.

[TeenKitten]

The red cross will allow you borrow a wheelchair for free if you need one... but they don't tell you about the compulsory donation until you're there. It's still fairly cheap (£30/month IIRC) but I was a bit pee'd off when they told me on the phone & on their website that it was free. They also refused to lend a 14-year-old me a self-propelling one for "health and safety" because I was "too young" but when my 10-year-old sister broke her ankle, they gave her one

[specialsubject]

we have a red cross charity shop in our town. I take the coasters back when I'm passing, where they join a huge pile.

the shop gets quite a lot of my donations because they are closest to the car park and I buy stuff there, so I don't feel the need to add extra money.