#and most recently: “if you give money to this nonprofit i don't like you're a bad person”

[macro-microcosm]

Your sanctimony helps victims of genocide equally as much as fandom posting.

[copperbadge]

Your recent(ish) post about donating made me go out and donate a few times when I got emails from my city library and a few other causes I donated to in the past and unexpectedly I've been getting calls? From people? Thanking me for donating? My social anxiety levels have gone up through the roof.

I mean, it's good to get practice into answering the phone, but Mr. Badge, I'm terrified

LOL that is indeed a disadvantage of giving under one's own name. Nonprofits make a habit of perceiving people who may not wish to be perceived!

If it helps, a lot of orgs don't have a dedicated phone team and just have their regular staff working those thank-you lines, meaning the person on the other end is probably as anxious about calling you as you are about answering. :D

I ran into this on some level during Giving Tuesday this week -- I'd been getting Black Friday mailings since like, October, and I got a few emails for Cyber Monday, but I've blocked most retailers who have me on their list so it wasn't too awful. But a lot of nonprofits only email me two or three times a year so I don't bother blocking, and that meant after a relatively mild Cyber Monday I got this AVALANCHE of appeals on Giving Tuesday. Which was mostly just hilarious.

I will say, generally if you recently gave and someone calls to thank you, they just want to "steward" you -- to keep building your relationship to the organization. This can come off as a one-way street if you don't want to be pestered, but it's also an opportunity -- if you have questions about where your money goes, what progress the org is making, etc. this is the time to ask! It's a chance for YOU to build your relationship too. If you tell someone from the library, for example, that you think they're doing a great job, that kind of feedback does make it up the chain. So does feedback like "I love the library but I wish you'd offer more new books by trans authors" or similar.

It's also a great time to change anything you want to change -- like say you don't want paper mailings, you can ask them if they can make sure you're only getting e-appeals. You can say "Hey, I really appreciate the call, but I don't love getting phone calls in general -- could you mark me do-not-call in my record?" and if they have database access they should be able to help you out.

Anyway, thank you for your giving! I'm so glad to see that my nattering on about nonprofits and such is having an impact, because I kind of worried I was just annoyingly shouting about something people wish I wouldn't shout about :D Congratulations, philanthropist! You are doing good works in the world!