I found something surprising in my mail today. Along with the latest issue of The YellowJacket and the junk from Student Foundation about flowers, I found a letter from Amnesty International.
The letter, naturally, was a plea for a donation. It summarized the driving force behind the organization, and it contained quotes from a couple of people that the organization has helped. According to its website, "Amnesty International undertakes research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination, within the context of its work to promote all human rights." Because I support that goal, I will likely send a donation.
That isn't why I'm writing this, though.
What I find fascinating is that I received a letter from Amnesty International. I am intrigued by this because, as far as I know, I have never donated money to any charity (or other) organization connected with them. Why would they ask me for money?
Do they just randomly send out letters across the country and hope for a response? If they do, that seems awfully inefficient. I would hate for my donation to be used to pay for more letters that would ask for more money.
If it isn't random, how did they come across my name and address?
Posted by Randy at January 26, 2006 01:25 PM | TrackBackMost of my solicitations started arriving after I subscribed to vaguely relevant journals -- periodicals indicating that my interests might coincide with those organizations'. (E.g., the ACLU started asking me for money after I subscribed to Foreign Affairs, which is not related to the ACLU's work but has a similar constituency.) Aren't you a subscriber of TNR?
I suppose your DC internship might also have associated your name with Amnesty's target segment.
Posted by: Wilson at January 26, 2006 02:47 PMI do indeed subscribe to TNR. However, I have never seen a single advertisement for Amnesty International in the magazine. Scanning through the most recent issues I received, I have found ads for Unicef, though.
Of course, lack of an advertisement doesn't really mean anything. You might be right.
Posted by: Randy at January 26, 2006 03:10 PMOh, I put your name in to a lot of charities. I assumed you wouldn't mind - it always seems to me that you just have too much money anyway.
Posted by: Anonymous (aka: Brian) at January 29, 2006 11:32 PMHA! HAHA! HAHAHAHAHA!
Posted by: Randy at January 29, 2006 11:52 PM