I don’t have any problem hanging up on charities
May 11th, 2008If 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.

