Hi @fiesty76 I'm Scott and I spent a large part of my work career in nonprofits. I understand your frustration with so many direct mail solicitations.

Nonprofits that send trinkets, items, or sometimes a dime or nickel showing through the envelope work for those charities. Believe me, they watch those returns very closely to make sure they make them money. Some use outside, for profit companies to do those mailings where the for profit gets some portion of the contributions and the remainder goes to the nonprofit. And yes, far too many nonprofits make part of their money (sometimes significant amounts) by selling or 'renting' their donor and/or mailing lists to other nonprofits and sometimes to for profit companies, such as catalog retailers. Often times the disclaimer printed on the back of the materials will tell if they sell your name or not.

If you write a charity and request to be dropped from their list they should honor that, but those often 'get lost' in the internal systems they have. Also many will still keep you on a 'one ask a year' list! Always cheaper to keep a former donor than find a new one -- even if you were only a donor to the organization they bought your name from. I find if I send a letter to them asking for them to stop soliciting me they seem to honor those more than a phone call. Also, even though it is a waste of money, they will keep sending to you until a certain amount of time passes and you do not ever give. This timeframe varies by each charity.

I always tell family -- drop the guilt -- use the item they send like return address labels (I use them on bills), have note pads out the gazzoo I use for doodling, and the rest get recycled. It is their choice and they wouldn't do it if it didn't earn them money.

I hope the sun is shining in your neck of the woods today!