Dear American Cancer Society

When you stop beating me up for money, maybe I’ll appreciate what you are doing.

No, I did not ask for a Supporter Card. Photo by author.

I suppose if I could have looked up the correct address I might have mailed this directly to you. On the other hand, it would probably be just one more way for you to collect my address and sell it forward.

My dear friend passed away of cancer earlier this year. It was more than sad and we are still grieving his loss. That, however, is not my direct reason for contacting you at this time.

You see, when he passed, his wife asked that his friends make contributions to the American Cancer Society (you) in lieu of flowers.

So I did.

I hope you put some of that money toward helping others with cancer. It was an unsolicited donation. It cost you nothing.

But apparently that was not enough for you guys. Since then you have been badgering me regularly for more money.

Not only that, but you passed my contact information on to others so that they could badger me for money. And they passed that on to still more.

I now get several letters a day begging for funds for one good cause or another.

Guess what. I am not a millionaire. I have (hopefully) enough to live modestly in my retirement. I give what I can. Each month, I choose one charity and give them something. Last June, I chose you.

I am not choosing you again.

I suggest that you save your precious funds and remove me from your mailing lists. Sending me all that stuff costs money that could be better spent caring for people with cancer.

While you are at it, you might pass it along to all of those other folks to take me off their lists as well. I don’t give money based on random requests I get in the mail. When you guys have the decency to identify yourselves on the outside of the envelope, I don’t even open it. (When I have to open the envelope to see who it is from, that pisses me off even more. Not a good way to develop charitable support.)

Thanks for letting me get this off my chest. Best of luck in your future fund raising efforts.