Telling Charities No

The request to make charitable donations is a frequent occurrence during the holiday season, but sometimes it is not the right time or charity for someone to want to donate. For those that do not wish to donate but want to avoid the guilt, here are some ways and reasons to answer in the negative to requests for donations:

• Decide in advance which charities  will receive donations for the year, and explain that the requesting charity is not one of the one’s chosen.
• If the obstacle to donating is financial restraints, consider donating a different resource, such as time by volunteering with a charity.
• Make sure charitable contributions are adjusted as life changes occur, and don’t give more than your income allows only because that was the amount given in the past.
• Know that it is completely reasonable to be suspicious of unheard of charities and to request more information before deciding to donate, or choosing not to.

See Veronic Dagher, When You Don’t Want to Give to a Charity, The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 7, 2014.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.