In which I rant about a certain fundraising campaign

[redfiona99]

(Added note 1 - I'm trying a different posting method, so one post per major topic. Any views or preferences, please feel free to comment)
(Added note 2 - possibly the first of many posts today. I am babysitting other people's students. I am a bit narked off about this as I have a major deadline today. Not a deadly deadline for unrelated reasons but still ...)

The actual rant:

So I get home from a long days work to be greeted by Cancer Research UK's most recent fundraising campaign.

The big headline is "Cancer doesn't care if you throw this in the bin". I presume it goes on to tell me what awesome things I will be funding if I don't throw it in the bin. I presume this because I'd already thrown it in the bin.

This is because, while I am entirely behind Cancer Research UK's fund-raising attempts (guess whose money built the building I work in), and while they're right that cancer really doesn't care if I chuck the damn thing in the bin, cancer also doesn't care if I give them money. Because it's not fucking sentient.

Um, I have this thing you see, possibly because I'm a scientist, where I prefer my fundraising efforts to be slightly less stupid and slightly more technically correct. I know "Cancer treatment will not be affected by you throwing this in the bin, but it will get better if you give us money" is less eye catching, it's also less likely to make me turn puce and swear.

Comments

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

I would prefer silly anthropomorphising to guilt tripping, though! "If you don't reblog/donate/stand on your head whistling 'Waterloo' you don't care about people with cancer!!!" It's a nasty form of chain letter.

[redfiona99.livejournal.com]

The "official" (you know what I mean) fundraising letters I've received have been remarkably good at not guilt tripping. Until you've already donated and then they get very guilt-trippy - looking at you, so very much, CLIC Sargent.

[angstbunny.livejournal.com]

I'd still consider that a form of guilt-tripping, and I hate all forms of guilt-trip contingent fundraising.

[redfiona99.livejournal.com]

I think the problem is trying to find a balance between making a person feel their individual contribution is important (because each individual dollar isn't, but when you add them together they definitely are, and people give more if they feel their contribution is valued) and not heading into guilt trip territory.