We all have our favorite charities, many which have personal meaning to us. But once you send a donation to one charity you soon find your mailbox filled with requests from dozens of other ones. Some you never even heard of!
When you get off the junk mail lists, there will be some reduction of incoming requests. But most charities may not use the same lists that marketers use. They like to use lists from other charities. After all, you donated to one charity so maybe you will donate to another.
Mail-in Donations
To keep your name off of these lists you have to request it in writing with each charity you donate to. This is easy to do. Use this Charity Request form each time you mail in a donation. You will be requesting the charity to remove your name from any list that they sell or give away to other companies. Fill out the form, sign it, and enclose it with your donation. You can hand write out a similar request if you prefer.
This form also states that you are making an annual donation and are asking the charity to only send you one request per year. Most charities will honored the annual request. I would rather my donation go to the cause than the postage and cost of mailing multiple requests.
Online Donations
If you’re donating online there is usually a box that you can check to request to have your name removed from any lists the charity sells or gives away. You may have to read all the fine print to find the box but it should be there.
Unsolicited Charity Requests
If you’re not donating to a charity but you keep getting their solicitations in the mail, you can still request them to stop. If you want, you can take the time to hand write them a letter asking them to remove your name from their list and any lists they sell or give away.
An easier way is to go to the charity website and email them with the same request. Some sites will have a box you can check to requests the same information for both your email and home address. Many times the request you get in the mail will have an a special website address for you to get off the mailing lists.
There are federal laws that require the charities to honor your requests so it’s worth taking a few minutes to stop as many as you can. Then you won’t have to waste your time going through all the ones you don’t want to donate to in order to find the one or two you do want to support.