August 3, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
Miss Manners has some stern words for fund raisers.
In her weekly column, which appears in newspapers nationwide, the matriarch of social etiquette questions why some charities send people dozens and dozens of appeals.
“It has always puzzled Miss Manners to find how often those who work on behalf of other people in general feel free to annoy the particular people with whom they come into contact,” she writes.
Her rebuke is in a response to a donor who feels overwhelmed by nonprofit solicitations in part because the economy has forced his family to curtail its giving. He would like to send letters to the charities to halt their mail appeals, but worries it’s a waste of a stamp.
Miss Manners, whose real name is Judith Martin, says there is no simple solution to his problem.
“As you point out, the grating pleas will continue no matter what you do,” she writes. “So it seems futile to offer an explanation unless you can get the attention of someone in a position to stop using charity money to be rude.”
What do you think? What advice would you give? Do charities stop their solicitations when asked?
