I don’t have any problem hanging up on charities
May 11th, 2008 | by mbhunter |If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
JLP at All Financial Matters asked his readers how they handle cold calls from charities. Is there a way to handle these kinds of calls gracefully when there’s no interest in giving to the charity? JLP asks: “How do you say no to legitimate calls for help without feeling guilty?”
I’m not anti-charity and we do support several, and we give generously to our church. But at the same time, I have no problem just hanging up without a word as soon as I realize it’s a charity. Absolutely none whatsoever. That sounds cold — and for all I know it might be — but here are the three main reasons:
- The charities don’t take the hint. You’d think after hanging up on them two dozen times that it would be pretty clear that I don’t want to donate. Nope. This doesn’t enter the equation because …
- The charities don’t have to take the hint. Even if I tell them I don’t ever want to give and that they’re wasting their time calling me, charities are exempt from the laws governing the National Do Not Call Registry. I cannot stop them from calling. From the Business FAQ page on DoNotCall.org:
- Charities will continue to ask for money. Most charities worth supporting have legitimate reasons to ask for money, but when’s the last time you heard a fundraising drive end early because they raised enough money? The charities that we support always, always continue to offer us opportunities to give more.
The National Do Not Call Registry does not limit calls by political organizations, charities, or telephone surveyors.
The few charities that call us at home again and again — the “usual suspects” — are ones that we’ve never had any interest in supporting. In most cases the charities we support don’t call us. That’s why I don’t feel the slightest twinge of guilt hanging up on the ones who do. The calling rules are set up in their favor, but I can still control the length of the call.
4 Responses to “I don’t have any problem hanging up on charities”
By Four Pillars on May 11, 2008 | Reply
I couldn’t agree more.
I’ll add one thing - when you hang up on a telemarketer (charity or not) you are actually doing them a favor by not wasting their time - they can move on to the next call right away.
Mike
By guinness416 on May 11, 2008 | Reply
For me, a quick “not interested, thanks” as soon as they start talking works and is passably polite. The people who let the poor sods continue their spiel aren’t being pleasant, they’re wasting two people’s time.
By Anitra on May 12, 2008 | Reply
I don’t have too many charities call me, because I only have a cell phone; however, the ones that do (usually because I gave them a donation in the past) are quite persistent, as you say. As soon as I can get a word in edgewise, I politely tell them I’m not interested at this time. (If it’s my alma mater, I tell them I’m not giving money until I’m done paying off my student loans.)
I do actually know of one organization that ends their fundraising drive(s) as soon as they meet their goal: one of the Boston NPR stations, WGBH, started doing that about a year ago. They now advertise ahead of time that they will begin the fund drive on a certain date and end it as soon as they meet their goal - it seems to get people to give more and earlier, since they know their contribution will cut time off the fundraising.
By That One Caveman on May 12, 2008 | Reply
I usually tell them that I’m on the national Do Not Call list and wait for them to “remind” me that they’re exempt. That’s when I tell them that in my eyes, they just another unwanted telemarketer and insist on being put on their do not call list and “remind” them that since they didn’t respect my wish to not be called, they will never see a dime from me so calling again would be pointless.
I give everything I’m able to give at church, where I know exactly how and where my dollars are spent.