Memorial Gifts

I often do memorial gifts for someone who has died.  Or if someone I know has lost a pet.  Or in honor of someone.  When my parents were alive, in their later years, I sent them a small Christmas gift, but sent a gift in their honor to their church.

So, I also appreciate when someone does a memorial gift on my behalf.

But there is a catch to this.  Because when you send to a charity, you usually get put on their mailing list.  And, you receive endless solicitations from the charity requesting additional donations.  I understand that for the charity the cost for the request is minimal vs. the hoped for gain. But I hate getting all of that mail.

I have several charities to which I donate regularly, and if I am going to donate on an ongoing basis, it will be to those select charities.  I only do memorial or honoring gifts to select entities, and for specific reasons.  I have actually asked some of the charities or organizations I receive mail from to take me off their mailing list. 

I am not trying to be unaltruistic, but my ongoing charitable dollars are intended for specific charities. Period.

Colleagial Support

I am so blessed.  My co-workers are so caring and supportive, it is amazing.  Some months ago, one of the psychologists started talking to me about my back problems, the pain, and the relief I get under certain circumstances.  He has talked to me about the circumstances of his wife and daughter, who also have intractable pain.  He often takes me aside, gives me hope, suggestions, and ideas about treatment, then apologizes for taking up my time.  I knew he had a private practice outside of our work environment. I found out today that his private practice is focused on pain management, although he takes on other clients.  This man is giving me his professional guidance in a very casual way, apologizing for taking up my time!  Wow, what a blessing and gift it is to know this man!

The Candy Bomber

I watched the PBS show The Candy Bomber  Fhttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/airlift/sfeature/candy_06.html. I had heard part of this story before.  I was really thrilled to hear that Elms College http://www.elms.edu/ contributed to the effort.  It makes sense.  Elms College is in Chicopee, Massachusetts.  It is not that far from Westover Air Force Base http://www.westover.afrc.af.mil/ which supported the Air Force efforts during this time.

Go, Elms College!

School Supply Drive At Monford

Today we received announcement that the Montford Medical and Psychiatric Unit http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/unit_directory/jm.html - TDCJ http://tdcj.state.tx.us/ and CMHC http://www.ttuhsc.edu/som/cmhc/ staff are being encouraged to donate school supplies for foster children in the community.  A few months ago, we were asked to donate food, diapers, and other essentials for people in the community. And we did.

I know the person who is spearheading these drives means well. But I wonder if this person understands that on a standard correctional officer salary, without overtime, many of our correctional officers would meet the financial guidelines for services with community agencies.  And, many of our non-licensed clerical staff would also probably fall into those categories.

The staff at Montford is generous. But we need to take care of and support our own. And we have, when one of our own has had a tragic, or life changing event. But maybe we need to be more sensitive about our fund raising events.

A Night to Remember

Tonight I went to A Night to Remember the primary fund raising event for Catholic Charities, Diocese of Lubbock http://www.cclubbock.org/. This is a yearly event.  The best way I can describe it is a giant cocktail party with heavy hors d'oeuvres, with silent and live auction items, and a final raffle.

This year, it included a live band, with nice jazz/swing style/club music.  The are called Ad Hoc, and they did a very nice job! It added so much to the atmosphere!

There is a professional auctioneer who has done the last three live auctions. His part of the night is a show in and of itself.  I really enjoy that!

It was a good night.  I did not successfully bid on anything, which is fine, because that means someone else paid more than I offered for the items I wanted.

It was a fun night.   I think it was successful.

Charitable Drive At Work

I work at a psychiatric prison.  The prison staff and offenders do a lot of community service. There are a lot of community projects that were completed by offender (trustee) labor. We do fundraisers for Special Olympics, Salvation Army Angel Trees, blood drives, and other community service activities.

Most recently, we have been asked to contribute to Impact Lubbock http://www.lubbockimpact.com/.  The request is for food items, and hygiene items. Impact Lubbock is a great charitable organization that helps people who are homeless or otherwise down on their luck. 

I am pleased that my place of employment will help this wonderful organization.

Donation Requests and Mailing Lists

So, often in a memorial gesture for a deceased person who has meant something to me, I will do a donation to an organization of the family's suggestion or choosing.  Which means, I end up on mailing lists for all kinds of organizations.

And, although I may never respond to these organizations again, I receive mail from them for sometimes years after I made the initial donation.  It may be some months, or even years, between times that they contact me.  But every once in a while, I will receive another feeler or request.

Sometimes, they even send me things, and request a donation back.  Years ago, when I was a child, my mother was trying to return some such items.  The local postmaster told her not to waste her time or money on postage. If you receive an item in the mail, unsolicited, with a request for a donation or payment, you are under no obligation to make a donation or payment. Well, I get all kinds of calendars (but only one this year), bookmarks, stickers and return address labels.  What is most infuriating is when they cannot even bother to spell my name correctly on the return address labels.

I used to sort the mail for our department at work, and I noticed something really interesting.  When the recession hit, all of a sudden, we were getting mailings from companies that had the names of people who had not worked at the agency for years.  I figured that when times got tough, they expanded their mailing lists to try to fish for more customers.

I wonder how much that costs. I suppose that companies doing mass mailings get some sort of bulk rate discount. But, I think of the cost of paper, printing, and even paying someone to do design layouts. I guess the stuffing of envelopes is automated, but even so, to run the machine must cost something.  I suspect there is an agency or organization out there that can give us statistics about what kind of result this mass mailing produces.

I have to admit that sometimes in the past, I was ugly about these mailings.  In the time of postage paid return envelopes, I would sometimes stuff their materials into those envelopes and return it to the concern involved. I did not do that with not for profit social service or charitable organizations, but with businesses. I am not sure it had its desired effect.

So, although I do receive many, many donations requests, I have specific charities or causes that I primarily and regularly support.  The rest are pretty much ignored. Not because I think their cause is unworthy, but because I am limited in what I can do to help, and I cannot help everyone.

Moore, Oklahoma

There were multiple devastating tornadoes today.  Most hard hit was Moore, Oklahoma, which was devastated in 1999 by a tornado.

The damage was massive, including 2 elementary schools, large stores, the medical center, and Interstate I-35.

There is little I can say tonight about how sickening the scenes are, how sad I am, how my heart goes out to the people affected, and my prayers are with them.

Once again, I feel very strongly that we need to put our money where our mouth is.  The Salvation Army http://salvationarmyokcac.org/ and American Red Cross http://www.redcross.org/ok/oklahoma-city are good choices. I have chosen Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma http://www.catholiccharitiesok.org/.

I am watching The Weather Channel http://www.weather.com/ coverage.  I have to wonder about the compassion fatigue that the weather reporters experience. 

Okay, So It Is Time To Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

One of the regrets that I have had as a social worker, is that for the first 15 or so years of my career, I had to account for every penny to survive. As the latter years have progressed, I have had more discretion with my finances, but have always been conservative. With the increased flexibility of my finances, I have been able to make charitable contributions that years ago, I wished I could make, but was too financially strapped to be able to do.  The life of a social worker.

One of the gifts that I have felt I have in the last few years is to have some discretionary funds so I can donate to various charities. There are five charities to which I donate monthly.  This is very private, so I will not name them, nor the amounts.  I would not mention this at all, but I want to make a point.

When certain circumstances come along, I supplement my charitable giving by donating to help with these special circumstances.  I send memorial gifts when someone has died. I send a one time gift when there is an unusual incident that I want to provide support to and to which I want to contribute.

I have very few regular blog readers.  I do not know why I am being read in Russia, Germany, Ireland, or China, to mention a few.  I suspect these are automaton readings, scanning for political, ideological or maybe religious or radical sentiments. 

I do not know who you are, or even if you are real persons versus electronic coding entities.  If you are real persons, I will challenge you now to put your money where your mouth is. Donate to help the people who have suffered because of the Boston Marathon Bombings.  Donate to help the people in West, Texas who have suffered due to the explosion of the fertilizer plant in their community.

I know that the few people in my personal circle who read my blog already contribute to charitable causes, either with time, talent or treasures.   So, if there is anyone who I do not know personally who is reading this, I will challenge you to contribute to a charity with your time, talent, or treasure, if you are not already doing so.

Charitable Giving

I have a set of charities to which I donate regularly.  And, I also donate for specific and special reasons:  in memory of someone; in memory of a deceased pet; because of a special event or disaster.  For example a couple of years ago, the local Salvation Army http://www.uss.salvationarmy.org/uss/www_uss_lubbock.nsf extended their shelter hours during a very cold spell. Because of natural disasters like Katrina, Rita, Irene, or Isaac. For the holidays.  If a social service organization does something I especially like, I support them with a donation.

I have been watching a lot of the television coverage of Hurricane/Tropical Storm/Tropical Depression Isaac on The Weather Channel http://www.weather.com/.  They have, at times, talked to American Red Cross workers, and talked about how easy it is to donate to the American Red Cross: you simply text http://www.redcross.org/search/index.jsp?_DARGS=/jspf/modules/nav/primary-navtemp.jsp and it will result in a $10 donation, which will show up on your phone bill.  I think that is really great.  I suspect, especially when that first was introduced, they received an increase in donations. We love technology and what it allows us to do.  I sent in an idea to The Weather Channel: to add a link on their home page so people who check it can donate to The American Red Cross or the Salvation Army (one or both.)  We shall see if that gets added.

I was getting ready to write a check to the American Red Cross for Isaac relief, but checked my emails first.  As I am on the board of the local Catholic Charities organization http://www.cclubbock.org/index.html, I receive a weekly newsletter from Catholic Charities USA http://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/.  They set up a special donation opportunity to help with Isaac relief, so I decided to donate through them, instead.

Not very long ago, the director of Catholic Charities, Diocese of Lubbock, commented that when there is a local emergency, the local Red Cross and Salvation Army get good publicity for their disaster aid. But almost always, Catholic Charities gets called, but does not get the publicity that the other two agencies get. I wonder what we can do about that.

Charitable Giving

At this time of the year, most social service organizations, and many other non-profit organizations step up their campaigns to increase the donations that they receive. This is a wise strategy:  They are trying to capitalize on the spirit of giving that the holidays engender.  They are also trying to capitalize on the tax benefit that people can obtain from charitable giving.

My thought is that these agencies or programs function all year round. Their need does not diminish before or after the holidays. It is ongoing. For these agencies to function, they need support all year round.

While I do not think their efforts during the holidays should be curtailed, I think it would be wonderful if people who give during the holiday season gave all year round.