Still Running Off at the Keyboard

HELLO NON-PROFIT ACCOUNTANTS...

Somewhere out there in the land of educational theory is a bright young school of thought that says the names of those whose contribution to a non-profit exceeds a certain dollar amount should be moved to what I call the TMDT list. (That's the Too Many Dead Trees list, so named because all of the paper they generate must kill a lot of trees.) Once this happens the solicitations can turn into a virtual snowstorm of harrassment for contributions. It's really not nice to harrass your donors.

I would like to tell these theorists one more time that the moment I sense that my name has moved to the TMDT list is the moment that triggers the WWO response at this end until I sense a change in policy. WWO means Wastebasket Without Opening. In other words the mailing goes directly from the mailbox into the wastebasket after identifying the charity by the return address on the envelope.

It doesn't matter how good the work you are doing might be or how much I believe in your cause. The WWO response is programmed, and my programmer is permanently out of town.

If a time arrives when you appear to have moved me to the OR (Occasional Reminder) list, your charity may find its way to my SCO list, but it's not a given. That's Small Contributions Only. Think $25 or less.

Yet another charity doing good work moved me to the TMDT list and triggered the WWO response this week. It's a shame, really considering tomorrow is Thanksgiving and Christmas is coming.

Charities which do not reduce their harrassment to something significantly less than every week, after an arbitrary time period, might find themselves advanced to the STEMITREAM response. You don't want your charity to go there. (That's Stuff The Entire Mailing Into The Response Envelope And Mail.) When your donors send you this little present take immediate action to remedy the situation. They are giving you a message you need to heed.

So far only credit card companies have moved to the STEMITREAM response, but that can change, so it would be wise to stop pushing your luck.

It used to bother me to see a good charity meet with the WWO response. It no longer does. I'm tired of emptying the wastebasket filled with junk mail.