Re: Last night was "surf and coop."

On 3/11/2025 11:18 PM, Dave Smith wrote:

On 2025-03-11 11:03 p.m., Graham wrote:

On 2025-03-11 8:02 p.m., Dave Smith wrote:

FTW... when you get beg letters from charities they have the same sort of marketing gimmick.  They really only hope for a few bucks per person for most of their donors but what they do is take what they would really like from you and make that the minimum option.  They might hope for $10 so they make that the first option then they have $20, $50 $100.   Most donors will pay that minimum $10 because anything less would look really cheap. If they think that is a little low they will go with  the $20. If the organization is really lucky they will give $50. It is a marketing trick, and now they are doing it with tips, but starting way more than what used to be the norm for good service.
>

A cancer charity that I used to support bills through a third party
billing company. They charged me $115 to make a $100 donation.

 Ouch. I would be inclined to save that $15 by not donating the $100. It is a hell of a thing to rip off your donors.
 

Fairly common, professional fund raisers.  I only give to a couple of charities that I've checked out for things like that. I also ignore any phone calls for a charity.