Sir, – Prompted by a letter titled “Charities feel the pressure” (Letters, December 9th), I write to complain about what can only be termed as a tsunami of bulky graphically illustrated unsolicited enveloped appeals that drop through my letterbox in the space of any one week.
One must assume that such voluminous pulp comes at a considerable cost to the appellant charities with intermediary promotional agencies harvesting a significant commission for their efforts. One must assume that this is all without any evidence of philanthropic input to the cause by such agencies themselves. Such cost must surely seriously diminish the ultimate net worth of any donation from caring contributors to the targeted charity.
This is before one considers the negative carbon footprint impact of such expansive pulp production and distribution.
Whenever I made what I would view as a singularly modest donation, I always specifically asked the charity concerned to refrain from issuing written appeals to me. This request was always consistently ignored. I have now accumulated quite a hoard of unsought appeal mail over the past number of years. I have reached the point where I truly need to reflect upon and assess the dubious benefit of donations as I consider the likely adverse effect of such wastage and its deflationary result on the net value actually received by the intended charity.
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I find the methodology employed through letterbox mailshot saturation not only wasteful and futile but reprehensible and intimidating. – Yours, etc.
FRANK SLOWEY,
Gorey,
Co Wexford.
