Random Soapbox

I donated a few months ago to World Vision for disaster relief in Japan. Since then, I have received countless direct mail pieces, thick envelopes chock full of letters and inserts, asking for more money. I feel like a) too soon and b) that can't be cheap. So I sent them a quick email the other day asking, "Is it possible to get on your 'do not contact' list? When I donated recently, it wasn't to fund weekly direct mail pieces to myself soliciting incremental funds."

To their credit, they responded quickly; however, it will take another eight weeks of junk mail headed directly to the recycling bin to do so.

According to Charity Navigator, World Vision scores four stars. In addition, it only spends seven cents on every dollar in fundraising (i.e. over 88% of its budget goes directly to programs and services). That is unbelievably efficient. How is that possible given the number of direct mail pieces that I am receiving? Oh, right. Because they raise over $1.2B (!) in revenue each year. This translates to over $90M in fundraising. That's a lot of fundraising, no?!

In short, I feel significantly less inclined to continue contributing to them now even though I still believe they're a worthy cause. While their efficiency rating is high, I have a lack of trust that my monies are being used wisely.

I wish there was an easy way to set your preferences once, across all organizations, to avoid waste. Just because an organization "owns" my name, doesn't mean I want to hear from them ad nauseam.

Okay. I'm done.