pinglederry:

Hey Sam! I seem to remember you being familiar with the process of how non-profits solicit donations. Any advice on how to get off a shared mailing-list if you’ve been put on it without your knowledge? And/or how to donate to specific charities without unknowingly ending up on one of these shared lists? I’d hate to just stop donating, but one small donation seems to have snowballed into 8+ separate mailers full of “free gifts” I’m not interested in and it’s only been a couple months.

copperbadge:

It’s tough, because oftentimes even if you get off the mailing list, your address stays in the system, so larger nonprofits sometimes ignore the “do not solicit” designation on your record. Smaller ones also have an issue – I’ve been working on my office to be better about purging do-not-solicits from mailing lists, with middling success. Smaller nonprofits sometimes just don’t have very good data integrity. Like, if someone registers for a fundraising event with us, sometimes they get a duplicate record in our system because our event software (all we can afford) doesn’t play nice with our database (also all we can afford) and then they have one record that says “do not mail” and an identical one that doesn’t have that designation. We do our best to fix that but we’re a small team.

All of which is to say that there’s no magic bullet, just…alternate strategies.

Probably the most thorough way to get off a list is to look on the website for a phone number attached to any kind of giving – “Call this number to give by phone” or “Contact Development office here” and call that, then ask to speak to someone on the Data or Gift Processing team who can help you with your address in the database. You want to speak to a real live person who has access to the database (sometimes called a CRM) and can change your information in it. You can either ask them to remove your address completely, or you can ask them to put the strongest possible “do not mail” restrictions on your record. Tell them you’re just trying not to get too much in the mail and that it could impact your giving decisions in the future.

You can also just circle their address, write “return to sender”, and pop the solicitations in the mailbox unopened; usually they’ll remove your address as a “bad address” if you do that, though that may only work until the next time they do a data refresh 😀

However, the best possible way is never to give them your address in the first place. There are a couple of ways to do this; you can buy a visa giftcard and use that to give, entering either the address the card directs you to, or a made-up address (I’ve used Wrigley Field before). Some places allow you to direct-debit from a bank account or investment account, in which case the bank’s address goes out on it. Or you can use a Donor Advised Fund to give “anonymously” – for example my DAF of choice, Charityvest, allows you to control how much the org sees, from “Nothing at all” to “just your name” to “all your details”. Charityvest has a required minimum $20 donation if you’re giving, but that’s sometimes the cost of anonymity I guess. Also, Facebook fundraisers only ever give the nonprofit your name and the amount you gave (nonprofits are LIVID about this) so giving through Facebook is actually kind of a good way to go, in terms of data management.

Anyhow, it sucks when a nonprofit sells your data (pretty sure UNICEF and Doctors Without Borders did a listswap and that’s why DWB now sends me tchochkes sometimes) but sometimes it’s just that the nonprofits aren’t perfect about data integrity.

If you are in the UK, you can use the Fundraising Preference Service

arcaneglitch:

morriganwarrior:

weirdqueeraltkid-deactivated202:

comingoutofthecauldron:

stop telling your teenage daughters who say they don’t want kids that they’ll change their mind

reblog the shit outta this

I haven’t been a teenager in over a decade. Mind has yet to change on the subject.

  • At 14, I told my guidance counselor that I didn’t want kids. He chuckled, patted me on the back, and informed me that when I got a little older, and I was with a guy, I would change my mind.
  • At 16, my grandmother nearly had a heart attack because of her three granddaughters, myself and the youngest agreed we didn’t want to uave babies. Ever.
  • At 17, my father asked about my life plan. I told him: graduate high school, get my college degree, do some traveling and writing, go for this particular job I wanted, retired around X age, take month-long vacations to places I wanted to spend time in, etc. He asked, “What about a husband? Children? Normal things a girl is supposed to think about?” My response- a husband if a man came along that could share an adventure with me, kids were a No Go. He assured me I would ‘grow up’ qnd change my mind.
  • At 19, I shocked my former babysitter who had known me since I was a toddler, when I confirmed the rumour she’d heard that I didn’t want kids. She patted my mom’s arm and reassured her in a sweet voice that, “Don’t worry, girls say a lot of silly things before they meet the right fella, and wise up. She’ll give you grand babies”
  • At 22, I was talking to a college professor who chuckled at my making a comment about how, “thank goodness I’m never going to have to worry about juggling child rearing eith marriage, work, and life”, then she realized I was serious. She asked if I was alright, thinking I could-not (not didn’t-want) kids. I told her the truth, could have but didn’t want to. She was aghast, then told me that I’d change my mind when my husband wanted some kids.
  • Well, I’m over 30, still have absolutely no desire to give birth, adopt, raise, or have much of anything to do with children. I don’t hate children, I don’t think people who have them are crazy (more power to you, to create and/or care for another person), and I don’t think it’s impossible to have a life AND have children. I recognized at an early age that I don’t have that biological imperative to procreate, I don’t have the patience to deal with children (something that has shown very little improvement as I’ve gotten older, in fact it might be getting worse), and I don’t feel my life is incomplete without creating another life- I am good with living my own and doing my best to enrich the lives of those I care about (I try my best to be a good friend, to be a good sister, good daughter, good pet-owner, and a good person in general).

So please, please stop telling girls (or really kids at all, but especially girls) that they will change their minds. Please don’t tell them that meeting ‘the right guy’ will make them suddenly feel broody, that their potential future husband’s desire to have children will make her reconsider and see things his way. For one, a couple should have had that conversation and decided if it was a deal breaker, LONG before they got hitched. For another, it’s her body that gets to grow and birth another human being- her husband’s desire to be a father doesn’t supercede her autonomy.

Please, let girls make their own choices? Girls are forced to mature too fast as it is and are bombarded from all sides with SHOULD (you SHOULD be a size 2, you SHOULD wear this dress, you SHOULD have a boyfriend to be a normal teen, you SHOULD always smile), they don’t need another judgement from someone who hasn’t walked a mile in their particular shoes. Respect teenage girls and their ability to look at the world, themselves, their situation, and their future, and make an important choice.

*gets off soap box, slides it back under the sofa, lets out a sigh*

Thanks for attending my TED talk. G’night.

I have found that “Well, I’ve not ruled out the religious life*” sorts most people out. And the people who say “but you can’t be a nun” can’t actually back that one up with any reasons lololol

My Mum worries a bit that I’ll be alone when she’s gone, but having been a mental health nurse that specialised in older adults for like… all of her life, she’s see plenty of evidence that families do not work out like that so there’s no guarantees with that route. She *is* reassured by the idea that I could live in a religious community one day. So. lol.

*and like, it’s true. I’ve not ruled it out, it’s an option.

13th-wheel:

river-bottom-nightmare:

skeletor-the-gay:

thesevenumbrellas:

transmadotsuki:

imhonestlyjustsoconfused:

jamfilledheadphones:

cirilee:

this is the best possible version of fred

himbo

Didn’t he like end up perfectly fine but like killed like five people instead?? All those bones that he broke were not his?

Can someone find those screenshots for me?

So glad more himbo Fred content is appearing on my dash. People are finally learning the truth!

Fred killed Dick Grayson’s parents

Fred killed Dick Grayson’s Parents

In fury, Dick Grayson vowed to do whatever it takes to bring the culprit in.

bygodstillam:

extra-joker:

bygodstillam:

I just.

You don’t need a reason to not like a ship.  You don’t need a reason not to ship a ship, canon or otherwise.  You don’t have to prove it’s “problematic” or “abusive” or any of that shit.

You’re allowed to just not like it.  You can literally just say “eh, I don’t like it, it’s just not my thing” and that’s valid.  You don’t have to explain it or excuse it.  Just say you don’t like it and move the fuck on, for fuck’s sake.

I am BEGGING y’all.

but it’s blocking the FUCKING SUEZ CANAL–

/dies laughing/