School sending out a high end invitations for tzedaka dinner

amother

Mon, Feb 12 2024, 3:31 pm

Wondering everyone’s thoughts.

This morning, I got an invitation to a school dinner for a relative who is being honored. Clearly it is a fundraiser and a request for tzedaka. (We are 3rd cousins and live across the country).
The invitation, not designed by the relative who is the 3rd or 4th honorary, was completely over the top.
8x8, color brochure, heavy card stock, clear plastic envelope, large amount of postage……
Normally I would not go but might send a donation. I feel like they could have just “made’” that amount by saving my invitation and the waste is definitely not enticing me. Is it just me? I will send my tzedaka to an organization that is as careful with the hard earned money as I am. I want to help but I want to feel it is going to help those who need help.

mha3484

Mon, Feb 12 2024, 3:34 pm

I kind of agree with you. But also, when I registered for school there was a space to add if you have any expertise that you can contribute to the school and I am pretty sure you can meet your mandatory give and get obligation. So to be dlkz maybe a parent owns an invitation company and donated them.

amother

Gold

Mon, Feb 12 2024, 3:46 pm

I used to give to a certain organization and over the years we ended up on their mailing list about 7 times (my hebrew name, legal name, dh name, both names together, business name, etc) I would get 7 copies of their heavy Chinese auction booklet and it really bothered me because it was just wasteful for no reason. I even reached out and offered to clean up their mailing list for them but they turned me down so I couldn't keep giving them like I did before.

amother

Alyssum

Mon, Feb 12 2024, 3:52 pm

amother DarkGreen wrote:

I don't feel the need to weigh in on this myself, but.... my husband is definitely in your corner. Expensive mailers are a big-time pet peeve of his.

My husband feels the same. Just got a fancy invite where my niece and nephew are being honored
Honestly these things don’t bother me, don’t feel the need to get up in arms about this stuff

peace2

Mon, Feb 12 2024, 3:53 pm

I agree but I think the attitude towards planning these events is generally to make them elaborate and flashy - they want to get people's attention. The dinner will probably be in a hotel with high end food and entertainment... it's all part of the experience. I'm not in fundraising, I don't know why this is the standard but it seems to be this way. I guess the money put into making everything over the top is worthwhile for them

amother

Oatmeal

Mon, Feb 12 2024, 5:15 pm

Dh is connected to an organization that does this. The mailings are so over the top and every year it gets worse. The events themselves are also overdone and I find them an embarrassment. I’ve heard their stories a thousand times already that this is how they raise money. Im not buying it.
There’s another thread today about tznius. Tznius guidelines are important. Women need to know what the halacha is and what they have to cover. Some of these organizations need lessons too. They can be modest and still send out a nice mailing to raise money. Hatznea leches doesn’t end in your wife’s closet.

amother

Cyclamen

Mon, Feb 12 2024, 5:22 pm

I work for a philanthropic foundation, we look at costs of their fundraising and how they cover the costs.

There is a thing called “in-kind” donations. Ie the invitations were most likely donated by a vendor and got a tax write off and a thank you/name as a sponsorship. They are over the top so people can see what the vendor can do. Same with pamphlets, you name it.

amother

Viola

Mon, Feb 12 2024, 8:09 pm

I feel the way you do, and I tend to give more money to orgs that send plain, simple, inexpensive schnorrer letters that show me that they're keeping their fundraising costs down. (BTW you can go to CharityNavigator.org to see what percentage of a charity's expenses go to programming, fundraising and administrative costs. You want the maximum to be going to programming, of course. Unfortunately, CharityNavigator doesn't rate all charities. Some are too small, some don't provide data, and CharityNavigator doesn't rate educational institutions or institutions outside the US--though they do rate "American Friends of....")

However, I have learned two DLKZ facts:1. Sometimes a charity has a donor who is in the printing biz and does the work free of charge, or one who foots the bill for the printing; and
2. Some orgs are playing up to wealthy people who respond with lavish donations commensurate with the luxury of the invitations. Apparently these people are willing to give lots of money, but only if they receive an invitation appropriate to their position; insult them with a cheesy-looking one and you'll get nothing.

As for the dinners themselves, it is well known that splashy, celebrity-riddled, high-society fundraisers for things like The Endowment for the Whatchamacallit or the Museum of the American Whosamawatsit often make very little money and sometimes just break even. Fundraisers for yeshivas and shuls, I couldn't say. I do know that the annual dinner is my shul's largest source of revenue--but the invitations are pretty modest and the donors are, as philanthropists go, on the modest side. Nobody is giving a quarter of a million dollars.