How to Stop Receiving Donation Solicitations
Posted by Lau on May 8, 2008
I give to a few charities every year. Not a huge amount (about $40 to $60 to each). My three favorite charities are:
- The MSCPA (Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) – Charity Navigator Profile
- The HSUS (Humane Society of the United States) – Charity Navigator Profile
- The WWF (The World Wildlife Fund) – Charity Navigator Profile
I like giving, but I hate receiving solicitation from other charities to donate. I understand why they are doing it, but I have enough address label stickers to last me 2 or 3 lifetime right now!
I went on the hunt to find out how to get my name removed from shared mailing lists. I found an article on the Charity Navigator’s website, How To Stop Solicitations By Mail.
The bottom line is, in most cases, you have to pro-actively tells the charity NOT TO share your information. All of them should have a Donation policy page where you will be able to find where to write to request to be opted-out.
Tim said
I happen to be one of the owners of MyJunkTree and as a new company I search the web to see if we are getting any visibility out there and I post on relevant blogs.
We launched the company because we were tired of all the junk mail we were receiving and we personally did not want to bounce all over the web to contact all the different companies to stop it all. First and foremost we wanted to let people choose what they wanted to let come to their home knowing that some people really do like some of the coupons and catalogs. So our clients choose what they want stopped.
We also had to provide a service that is different than the other services out there, so here is what we offer:
1. We have a database of over 1300 catalogs that you can choose to stop.
2. We have over a 4000 charities/Non-Profits that you can stop solicitations from.
3. Stop the delivery of the national phone directories.
4. Stop the delivery of the weekly coupons.
5. Stop the general credit card offers as well as the ones from your own major bank.
6. Stop the miscellaneous junk mail from the data brokers.
7. You can register on the National Do Not Call Registry from the website.
8. You can order your no strings attached free annual credit report right from the website.
9. We plant trees with every new membership.
And, yes we are a paid service and yes you can do everything that we do for free, if you want to do all the research and spend the time contacting the companies yourself it can easily be done. We have just done all of the legwork for our clients and feel there is value in the service we provide.
Kelly said
My mother has Alzheimers. She receives an overwhelming amount of junk mail which includes, cataloges and charity donations. She no longer has access to write checks as she has a trustee to handle her business. The junk mail needs to stop as it adds to confusion and stress. How do I go about helping with this situation and how much do you charge for your service.
Lau said
Kelly… I would suggest you to check out this post.
You should be able to contact the companies that send your mother junk mail and request that they stop sending mail. Note that the process might take time, but I don’t believe paying to have someone do this for you is worth it or even justified.
Here are a few sites and tips on how to do this:
Do-it-yourself: Stop junk mail, email and phone calls
Stop the Junk Mail Monster!
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