British Red Cross

Every year at Christmas i receive through the post an envelope bulging with freebies ,in last weeks envelope is 2 christmas cards a Pen ,to write them with ,,4 parcel labels,a Book Marker, and a note book.
Im encouraged to make a donation of £5 or more to help those in Syria,a family with names makes it more personal.
While i do sympathise with the plight of anyone in a war zone ,i object to The Red Cross wasting money like this ,surely they can save a great deal and use the money spent on freebies through the post on those they are trying to help.
They are not the only. Charities that use these tactics,
I once did help sell Raffle Tickets for RSPCA that had come through the post once and it started a regular influx of RSPCA raffle tickets.

Whats your view on this .

Re: British Red Cross

I do give to the Red Cross, although it does annoy me when charities send people this sort of nonsense! I would never donate to the RSPCA, humans first every time, imo.

Re: British Red Cross

I think it's a case of speculate to accumulate. It must work because they and others have been doing it for a long time.
It doesn't work with me as I only give to local charities now. There are far too many and the purse isn't bottomless.

Re: British Red Cross

Red cross are the only human charity we give to, they were fantastic when we needed specialist items when various members of the family were in wheelchairs or bed bound. I do agree they don't need to send us anything to make us do so but the bits we receive we try to put to use so it's not wasted.

All other donations go to dogs and occasionally other animals.

Re: British Red Cross

I agree Eliza - really annoys me, a few years back I sent a small donation to a cancer charity - they sent a thankyou letter back ! I wrote and said my donation was so small, you've wasted some of it with this letter !
Its the phone calls too - that just puts me off giving to them again .....

Re: British Red Cross

I don"t like when these various charities send "Freebies" through the post, total waste of money to me, would much rather they put to good causes.

Re: British Red Cross

It certainly doesn't encourage me to donate, I just bin the lot.

Re: British Red Cross

I have three charities I donate to. SSPCA, Shelter, and The Salvation Army.

Re: British Red Cross

I have just had a load of stuff from the Red Cross too.
I prefer to choose the charities I wish to support not to be emotionally blackmailed into supporting a particular one with goods I didn't ask for/don't want/can't use .

I am afraid I stick the unrequested mail in the bin now, I think it is wrong and wasteful to send all this stuff to people.

Re: British Red Cross

I sent it all back with a polite letter saying that if they could afford to give away all these freebies they obviously did not need my money.