It does seem like there are significant side effects to donating to multiple charities, In that, if you’ve never donated before, I think a charity would generally prefer that you have donated at least once.
(I.E, if after processing costs, a charity had a choice between raising 1000 dollars after processing costs from one new donor, or 1000 dollars after processing costs from 100 new donors, I think most charities would choose the second for several potential reasons: Larger donor list, more publicity, etc, more potential warm call targets, more people that can be referred to allied charities, more people that can be asked to volunteer, a more reliable source of funding in general (single donors provide sporadic funding, whereas a large number of donors can provide a more regular stream of income. [I think this is why Charities also like people who have promised monthly donations.])
However, if you are absolutely certain you were NEVER going to give to those charities again, or that you gave money to charity based solely on calculations and were utterly immune to charity advertising, then you don’t want to add yourself to the lists, because the charity will waste time and money effort trying to contact you for additional donations that are not forthcoming. In that case, it might actually be net beneficial to give anonymously or to give to as few charities as possible.
This leads me to what feels like a somewhat unusual conclusion: If you’re sure that donating money all to one charity is beneficial, then it is. If you aren’t sure, and are sort of thinking “Well, maybe I should and maybe I shouldn’t, they’re all good...” Then you are probably more likely to be susceptible to advertising from both and would likely donate more money net by getting exposure to as much charity advertising as possible, so you should probably do that . If you simply feel you don’t know enough about the charities work to make a firm decision, then spreading your donations out is also an easy way to get charities happily sending you more information about themselves.
It does seem like there are significant side effects to donating to multiple charities, In that, if you’ve never donated before, I think a charity would generally prefer that you have donated at least once.
(I.E, if after processing costs, a charity had a choice between raising 1000 dollars after processing costs from one new donor, or 1000 dollars after processing costs from 100 new donors, I think most charities would choose the second for several potential reasons: Larger donor list, more publicity, etc, more potential warm call targets, more people that can be referred to allied charities, more people that can be asked to volunteer, a more reliable source of funding in general (single donors provide sporadic funding, whereas a large number of donors can provide a more regular stream of income. [I think this is why Charities also like people who have promised monthly donations.])
However, if you are absolutely certain you were NEVER going to give to those charities again, or that you gave money to charity based solely on calculations and were utterly immune to charity advertising, then you don’t want to add yourself to the lists, because the charity will waste time and money effort trying to contact you for additional donations that are not forthcoming. In that case, it might actually be net beneficial to give anonymously or to give to as few charities as possible.
This leads me to what feels like a somewhat unusual conclusion: If you’re sure that donating money all to one charity is beneficial, then it is. If you aren’t sure, and are sort of thinking “Well, maybe I should and maybe I shouldn’t, they’re all good...” Then you are probably more likely to be susceptible to advertising from both and would likely donate more money net by getting exposure to as much charity advertising as possible, so you should probably do that . If you simply feel you don’t know enough about the charities work to make a firm decision, then spreading your donations out is also an easy way to get charities happily sending you more information about themselves.