Charities: When the “ask” comes from a neighbor

I’m not sure if this is a new technique, but it’s new to me and it was new to the person who alerted me to it. A friend in town recently received a telephone call from a charity not asking for money, but instead asking her to write letters to 10-15 of her neighbors, soliciting donations for the organization. Something about it didn’t sound right to her, so she declined. Maybe it was because it contained elements of a pyramid scheme or a chain letter. That was my initial reaction when she told me about it.

A short time later, she received a letter from a neighbor, soliciting a donation for a different charity. In the envelope was a SASE back to the neighbor, not directly to the charity. It was then that it occurred to her what she didn’t like about it. She had several concerns:

• While she presumed it to be legitimate, she had no information about the charity, which she had never heard of.
• She felt pressured not to say no to a neighbor.
• While the “ask” was being made locally, her money would be going out of town.

She was particularly concerned about what percentage of her gift would go to the cause as opposed being fed back into fundraising or administrative expenses, but she didn’t even have an address for the charity and knew nothing of its reputation. It would be difficult to check out.

She felt the technique of having a neighbor ask for the money was a bit high-handed. It was difficult for her to say no due to the guilt factor introduced by the personal connection and the fact that someone, presumably her neighbor, had paid for the postage stamps on the return envelope.

“I felt like a crumb,” she told me.

Like most of us in Yellow Springs, this person is especially interested in supporting local causes. However, even though the request that local touch, she realized her gift would not directly benefit her community.

Ultimately, she slipped a note with her concerns in the envelope and dropped it in the mail.

Has this fundraising technique been widespread in the village and beyond? Is this a legitimate practice? Do desperate times justify desperate measures? I wonder if this is something we are going to be seeing more of.