The painful reality is that the organizations are in more trouble today than ever, and their efforts to fund raise are being expanded out of desperation. Every dollar for them is a plus (or more accurately, less of a minus). I can understand their interests in finding Yidden anywhere and everywhere to pull in a few more dollars. However, just like they are hurting, so is everyone else. The yeshivos and school where we send our children have had massive cutbacks in funds, and they turn to the parents to keep them afloat. Every other organization where we have been giving has lost donors and other sources of money, and we are pressured to keep them afloat. Our costs of living have also increased. The tzedokos to panhandlers in shuls and at our doors have also increased. Many of us have relatives or neighbors who are unemployed, and we are shunting our money there. Bottom line, there are fewer tzedokoh dollars available for these organizations who call me on the phone that I don’t know or have any connection to them. I try to be nice in telling them that I still give more than I am able, I still have unpaid debts, and I will never pledge on the phone. They are desperate, and insist on postdated checks or my credit cards. That’s chutzpah, but they are desperate.
I simply pray that these organizations find these forms of fund raising to be losses for them, not profitable. They will then stop this. I’m all for tzedokoh, and legitimate forms of obtaining it and using it for wonderful things. To be interrupted at work many times a day for these arguments is a major disturbance. I wish they would stop. I wish I could get my name off their lists.