Dear Dr. Babooner,
I’m hopelessly attracted to brainy do-gooder types who are interested in art, education, community and philanthropy. I can’t help it. When the words “not-for-profit” are whispered in my ear, I feel lightheaded and all my pockets get turned inside out. Needless to say, I’m widely known as a giver.
Anyway, I had this crazy dream that all my nonprofit friends came to the door asking for desperately needed help on the Very Same Day! While others might be delighted at the attention, I felt totally overwhelmed. I ran down to my basement and hid behind the washer for an entire afternoon while the doorbell rang incessantly. When I finally emerged I was covered with dryer fuzz and spider webs and looked like a cross between The Mummy and a lint roller that had been donated to an animal shelter.
I was just about to go back to answering the door, worried that my friends would now find me frightening and repulsive, when I woke up. But it made me wonder if it could possibly be a bad thing that I am so compassionate and generous.
Caringly,
Gil Tripp
I told Mr. Tripp he shouldn’t let one bad dream change his supportive lifestyle. Just because a deserving nonprofit organization asks for help, that doesn’t mean you are a bad person if you don’t come across. Nonprofits can’t afford to judge you – they can only be grateful that you are a philanthropist. Your support of any nonprofit organization is cause for celebration by everyone who works for the benefit of all, even if they never get a direct contribution from you.
But that’s just one opinion. What do YOU think, Dr. Babooner?
Trail Baboon 
Gil,
Is there room in your basement? There’s a guy named Max who keeps asking me for money and I need a place to hide out.
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Wants you to give to the max?
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Yep
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Snort.
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I just mentioned this Max…and Daughter wanted to know if it was a day to give to our neighbor Max. He might be more easily assuaged with in-kind donations of Lego…
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Rise and Shine Baboons:
Dearest GT:
Welcome to the Trail. You really ought to hang out here more often. Your description of yourself as “hopelessly attracted to brainy do-gooder types who are interested in art, community, education, and community” absolutely fits the denizens of the Trail. You have found your people, er baboons, on this site.
Do some homework about who you will give to, excuse me, to whom you will give, make your choices, then ignore the rest. It is the only way to survive modern marketing techniques, whether for goods or non-profit do-gooding.
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When I was younger I dated Gil’s sister baa
The good news is they get matching funds but you should have started your npo savings account last nov 17th so there were funds to match. If I give what I can afford you will be disappointed so be careful how you ask
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baa?don’t get it.
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Me neither.
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bad. 🙂
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bad trip
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Dale, you’re too funny. Gil Tripp, indeed! There are so many deserving organizations that I’d love to contribute to. Alas, I’m on a fixed income, so I have to choose the ones nearest and dearest to my heart. I love a bargain, and Give-to-the-Max Day allows the non-profits I support to really capitalize on my meager donations. Together we can make a difference, every little bit helps.
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Welcome back, PJ. Is the Saab healthy again?
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No, it spent the night at the mechanics. I’ll get the diagnosis this morning.
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Just got the diagnosis. It needs a new clutch slave cylinder to the tune of $1,400.00. Good think I already did my give to the max bit.
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Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!
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Yeah, that smarts. But although its a 1998 model, it’s otherwise in really good shape and only has 115,000 miles on it, so I’m opting to fix it. You don’t get much of a car for 1400 bucks, I’d only be buying someone else’s problems.
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Sheesh, I can’t believe it took me all day to figure out what is funny about Gil Tripp’s name. What was it somebody said the other day about the more you learn, the more jokes you get? Obviously I’m not very smart today.
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Well, at least you finally caught on, Edith. Rejoice in that.
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Not that long ago, the Mid-Morning show on KNOW was hosted by Katherine Lanpher. Hardly a shy person, Lanpher really cut loose during pledge drives, jeering at those reluctant to pledge and filling the air with barnyard animal noises. All of this had the opposite effect on me from what she intended. “PEOPLE! Come on! How about a pledge of just fifty bucks a week? Shoot, you pay more than that a week buying your morning latte!” (And I’d be thinking, “You have a ten-bucks-a-day coffee habit, Katherine?”) She’d often scoff at listeners because “Your cable TV bill is more than we’re asking for! Do you put a higher value on cable TV than public radio?” (And I’d be thinking, “Who can afford cable TV? I get my TV free through my antenna. You are making it clear, Katherine, that I’m too poor to pledge to public radio!”)
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Good point!
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Are you sure you didn’t mishear that, Steve? I’ve NEVER heard MPR ask for $50 a week. Of course, I don’t listen much during pledge week!
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She probably didn’t ask for that much, but she used that figure as a way of rubbing our noses in the “fact” that we’d lavish money on coffee while leaving poor MPR to struggle on without our support. Most MPR pledge hosts dance lightly around the guilt theme, but Katherine was as subtle as a chainsaw.
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Steve–you are typing again! Good to see you on the Trail.
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It is day-to-day, Jacque.
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When all of these wonderful organizations come knocking all on the same day, I try to ferret out the one who will benefit most from my meager contribution (and believe me, it’s small). This immediately cuts out some of my faves that have deeper pockets (buh-bye Opera – I have smaller fish to fry), and leaves me with those whose shoestring budget might really get a bump from my handful of pennies (well hello there teeny tiny theater group!). And then I go hide in the basement behind the dryer.
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I hear you, Gil, but hiding in the basement does not good! There is a stack of snail mail requests on my desk (somewhere) and at some point we’ll pick out the “favorites”, usually right around this time of year, and write out checks for a while. And there are so many deserving non-profits – uffda meg. I guess today would be a good day to do it…
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I usually do that the day after Thanksgiving – it seems a better use of the day than going shopping at bizarre hours of the morning.
Not all non-profits get matching funds on Give to the Max day – you have to do some research to know for sure – and if there is a match, it is usually capped, so your donation may or may not be matched. Choosing a different day to give is also a worthy option.
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Good morning to all. If all the non-profits managed to do what they claim to do, the world would be a much better place. What we really need is a better government and engaged citizens. I supose some of the non-profits are making at least some progress with their work. I have the feeling that some of them are better at self promotion than they are making this a better place to live. I agree with Steve about the lack of good manners of some of the fund raisers such as the one he mentioned.
Gil Tripp, with your interests you might fit in among this group. You have already had an offer to join you in your hiding place in the basement and apparently tim thinks he might have dated your sister.
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I might have mentioned before my friend Marilynn who retired with her husband, sold their Minneapolis home and moved to the coulee country of extreme southeastern MN. They built a cinder block structure down there and lived in it for three decades with no running water, heating it with a wood stove. In other words, they moved into something like a big deer shack so their living expenses would be minimal.
And then they lived like rich people, writing checks to “good causes” of all sorts while working in Habitat for Humanity projects. Once, when Marilynn said she’d been forced to cut back on her generosity because the money was running out, I saw she had recently written checks to 46 different good causes. Marilynn might decide she couldn’t afford a can of peaches to serve with lunch, but she would write checks for three different Indian college funds.
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Steve, I remember that you did mentioned your friend Marilynn and her husband once before on this blog. I am very empressed by their decision to reduce thier living costs to a minimal amount, just enough to get by. I think the amount of money they donated is not as important as the example they set by living a simple life style where they got by with less and left more for others.
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Now THERE is somebody who is really cutting back! Good for her. I imagine she would also get a big laugh – or snort – out of the suggestion to match her donation to her $10 a day morning coffee habit.
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Volunteering is another great way support organizations whose work we believe in. It’s the spirit of giving that’s important, not the magnitude.
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Sensitive and timely subject, because a friend of mine who had been a consultant for a nonprofit dealing with the homeless got laid off last week due to budgetary reasons–governmental grant cutbacks, in this case. This after he was laid off from his previous permanent job at another homelessness nonprofit about a year ago. It frustrates me no end when the Republicans talk about charities and churches providing social services instead of government, because donations dry up during crises like the recession when those services are needed most. Thought we’d learned all those lessons during the Depression, but I guess not. Grump, mutter, sigh.
I think Gil ought to make all of his donations anonymously. Send out a money order or something without his name on it and let himself fall off all those donor lists. Then he can stop feeling guilty about all the dead trees for the begging letters the charities send year-round and schedule his giving free of pressure–and stop having to hide in his basement. And, Gil, compassion is never a bad thing. We need a whole lot more of it in this world.
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Well said!
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Mrs. TGITH just got laid off from Capella University yesterday after being on the job (and loving it!) for one month. This is kind of a bad day for asking for donations…particularly if someone were to call on her while at home.
Gil, the world isn’t always a great place to be. There will always be something wrong and deserving people that could use a hand. Hiding behind the dryer may seem like a sound strategy at the time but, as you’ve discovered, accomplishes little and creates it’s own problems. I’d suggest developing a little toughness and a little thicker skin. At some point on the extremity scale, you will have to say, “No, I can’t.” I’m very sorry but, once again, reality can be a cruel mistress.
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Sorry to hear about Mrs. TGITH’s job loss. Makes it extra hard to be cheerful during the holidays.
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Ooh – that’s a bummer. Layoffs are grumpy-making no matter when they come, but this seems like one worthy of a good snit (or a a well-deserved deep blue funk). Sorry for both of you TGITH.
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I have found that when one is un- or underemployed, you can shift from giving money to giving time. Most non-profits appreciate both.
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One month?
Tough and unfair!!
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I like the way you hide behind your washer and dryer, Gil. Your description makes it sound like you’ve spent some time behind mine and it makes me want to go clean the basement. I hadn’t actually thought about hiding back there myself, but now that you mention it…
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No amount of soliciting would get me to lie down on the floor in the dungeon we call a basement, I guarantee it. Dryer fuzz and spider webs I can deal with, it’s the creepy centipedes that get to me.
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hadnt thought about it in 50 years. did it when i was little. but it was a brand new suburban home with 2 years wear and tear on the floor walls and everything else. new galvanized dryer vents rubber smelling hoses and boxelder bugs fro the neighborhood monster trees once fall rolled in.. great palce for hide and seek who would ever think to look there.
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Morning all. Years ago I did a couple of fundraising phone stints for a charity and they had a “professional” come in to give us a talk. One of the things that he told us was that fundraising is a numbers game. if you get someone on the phone who clearly isn’t interested, cut your losses, get off the phone and call the next number. Don’t waste your time trying to convince someone to give. This advice made me realize that if I don’t want to give, I don’t have to feel guilty about getting off the phone as soon as humanly possible – I’m actually doing them a favor by letting them get to the next number. These days as soon as I know it’s a fundraising call, I say “Sorry, this isn’t a good time.” and then I hang up. No guilt!
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I don’t donate in response to telemarketing calls, period.
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I make a deal with favored non-profits: Don’t call me, don’t send me paper mail, don’t send me a thank-you gift, and if I want to see your annual report I will look it up online. I will send you a check once a year. Just once. I will not forget, and you don’t need to remind me. Send e-mail if you must, but I will unsubscribe if you annoy me.
Most non-profits can follow instructions.
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That’s exactly my strategy.
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(I meant, exactly like VS’s strategy.)
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We will give later today after my and two friends quite playing with water in the bathroom.
A few years ago when we had a much better income, we were generous with charities and arts programs and the like. But now we have a much more restricted level of tithe to share. But we are on everyone’s list for phone calls and mailings.Everyone’s because of the range of activities to which we gave. We average more than a half-dozen requests a day in our mail, many who got our name from other organizations. The national organizations cannot be stopped from mailing; they do not respond to anything. The state and local programs quickly stopped the mailings and were slower with the phone calls.
I simply say to any phone call that we will never respond to a phone request and to drop our name please, but they do not. We now get a few on Sundays and evenings as late as 9:30, especially Sunday evenings. To those I explain that they need to also learn a lesson in human decency, wasted words because they are always paid callers.
The ones that really aggravate me are the ones that start “Someone in your house has diabetes . . .” or arthritis, or a disability. I ask how they know this and they all say, and we get many many of these, that we filled out an online questionnaire, which we never had. The disability they can get from the state of MN for our handicap parking permit. Otherwise are they guessing or do they somehow know?
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Every time I get a phone solicitation, I am reminded of the day that a bunch of us were at my late grandfather’s house, cleaning and sorting. The phone rang and I was the one nearest to it (this was also before cell phones were ubiquitous, so it was not surprising that the phone was ringing).
Turned out to be a paid charity solicitor. I could tell them in all honesty that the person they were trying to call was deceased. There was a very long pause, and then they hung up.
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We have a friend who says she is deceased. Supposedly that can lead to issues but she always does and has for years. But it does not stop the phone calls.
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Two items:
Three women, all over the age of 70, are in our bathroom with the door shut, playing with water. Go ahead guess why.
I have found a new lurker, one time poster. She posted a memory about Tom Keith on THAT day under the name Bonnie. I am encouraging her to post. She would be a perfect fit. An editor of cookbooks who has a background (I think a degree) in theater. Can we stand another word person with a theater background? That’s an easy YES, right? She was an editor of the HS yearbook I advised in the 70’s. One of my very favorite former students. She was co-editor with a close friend with whom she shared the same first and last name. So I know her as Bonnie L. and am hoping she will rise above lurkitude.
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Clyde… I tried to recruit someone in line on Saturday as well. Linda.. are you out there?
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So why are three women over the age of 70 in your bathroom playing with water? I’m not smart enough to make a guess.
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yes Linda, we would love to hear from you!
You too Bonnie-a cookbook editor? these foodie Baboons welcome you with open mouths, I mean arms.
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I’ve found a way to get national non-profits to quit mailing me stuff. On the pledge or reply card I write “Please remove from mailing list” and return it in their postage paid envelope. Some it takes a couple times, but they are paying every time.
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Excellent. My nephew used to collect several of these, and then stuff each envelope with another organization’s reply card, making sure to remove any reference to himself before sending. 🙂
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Nice theory. I got nine today and everyone required me to add the postage. I do not think I have seen a postage-paid envelope in awhile No doubt that is why.
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Good evening.
It’s so encouraging to read about how you all donate either time or money or both.
My wife and I have been talking about one local group in particular and trying to decide what they need more: cash or material things.
A little bit OT, my wife and I walked through a Pier 1 store today. I am simply offended by the tremendous amount of “stuff” in there. Who comes up with this stuff!!? Does somebody actually ‘design’ the reindeer made of round balls? And cover it with glitter? And to imagine all the packaging it takes to ship it from Timbucktoo to Rochester just makes me crazy. A good friend of mine has been working there unpacking stuff and unloading trucks. He says he comes home covered in glitter.
So I was kind of a big downer about that visit. I thought of this group and how it could be our ‘guilty pleasure’ to enjoy that stuff.
And way OT but food related so then it’s not so far OT: I should be getting my Amish Friendship Bread starter out of the fridge but I just can’t face it yet. I’m not ready for that commitment. I’m just not ready to handle it!
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Ben, there are stores that that bother me like that and Pier 1 is 1.
My wife would buy everything they have.
What’s the useless electronic gadget one? Brookstone?
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Oh, come on, Ben and Clyde, lighten up. Lots of stores with “useless” stuff out there, just depends on what you find useless. One of my favorite such store is The Bibelot, shock full of wonderful gift items. Hammacher Schlemmer, and Sharper Image are right up there too.
Personally I don’t have much use for any of that stuff anymore, but attending the Sharper Image’s weekly noon auction when they were downtown Minneapolis, was always great
fun.
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I can be self-righteous about Pier 1 because there is nothing in there I want. Now Sears tools or Dick Blick Art Supplies. But those are useful things, right?
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You get it! It all depends on your perspective. For a guy with a house full of home made Santas, I knew you had your quirks.
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if we ever want to protest against the takeover of america by the chinese the way to do it woud be to discontinue stuff. it would kill em
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just thought about it yesterday. friendschip bread here we come.vanilla puddin ho
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Anyone have a friendship bread starter they want to share?
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I killed my starter…and haven’t gotten the gumption to start up fresh yet. tim, can you share? Ben, will you be traveling north to Norcostco (or Gopher Lighting) anytime soon?…
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i hve a recipe for making the starter. it takes 10 days then you are welcome to a batch. . lets say monday after thanksgiving we can start
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Sounds like a plan. Thanks tim. Let’s know what we have to to, OK?
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will do
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Anna, I will be headed North both December 5th and 12th, pick up and return. Norcostco (for snow machines) and Heroic Lighting (funky lights!).
Tim, you have 10 day starter? Go for it; mine takes 20 days from scratch.
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Greetings! I am choosy about whom or what organizations I donate to. In general, I do not give to disease organizations — and it’s nothing personal. I just don’t like my money going to pharmaceutical companies. Most professional fundraising by phone soliciting I find dubious, as a significant portion of money raised goes to the phone centers as I understand it. I like going through the United Way as those organizations are usually vetted pretty well, have high standards and provide community services at the local level.
A tactic I’ve seen the last couple years that I appreciate, are the charities that come by your house and pick up clothing and household items you have to donate. I have very little (if any) money to donate, but stuff I can easily give away. And it saves me the trouble of having to drive it somewhere. Plus, different charities come by fairly often. There’s probably one coming through here every month, so stuff to donate doesn’t sit around too long.
I called Habitat for Humanity a couple weeks ago because I still have nice items (new in the box) that we were going to put in our old house. But Jim never got around to finishing the bathroom, or other upgrades before the house foreclosed, so we took all the stuff with us. I don’t need it sitting in my garage, so they are coming with a truck on Friday to pick it all up. I’m sure some families can put the bathroom fixtures, outdoor lights and ceiling fan to good use in their new home.
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nice way to turn misfortune into good fortune for others joanne. well done
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By the time I finish paying my monthly bills and entertainment and beautification expenses, there’s not much left over for people I don’t even know. Sometimes I think I’d like to volunteer more, but then again I already do a mountain of that on the job for my employer. One thing I am generous with is hugs after imbibing liberal amounts of wine. I’ll hug anybody and anything. Because I’m drunk.
Today one of my first graders informed the class that Obama is a bad president because he steals people’s money for the government. I would have debated him but the bell was about to ring and besides that he’s Asian so his IQ is way higher than mine.
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i liked your wine hugs donna and i say that you can cut back on beautifacation costs you are beautiful enough. tell him obama needs to steal money becuse bush forgot to pay before he left.
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the fund raising tha the politicians do these days is sick. i heard the other day that they spend 85% of their time raising funds and sitting on the phone chatting with financial backers for 10 minutes then on to the next one. clinton started it and the rest followed. i get angry when i see a shindig i’d like to go to then find out they want 50 bucks to let me in the door. now that corporations are able to give many corporate senators and congressmen can relax a bit. i love the saying that i’ll know that corporations are people when texs executes onre of them.
i heard today that the minnesota city goverment costs are killing small towns and they may have to close up shop because they cant afford to fix streets etc.. how about if instead of paying increased taxes we agree to fix the street by patching the cracks in the tar. blow out the road after a snowstorm mow the lawns on the medians and in the parks and why is it that the cities all drive new trucks and lawn mowers . couldn’t they be job creators and fix up old trucks to save money and provide needed work for folks?
gils parents heeza and sheeza raised gl and baa and their little cousins ura and ima to be good travelers and they often went with uncle gowenonna to the south in the summer.
night all
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tim, I think your are the little cousin, ura, aren’t you?
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i know you are but what am i
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weird?
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one sandwich short of a picnic?
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OT- Danish American Fellowship is having an Æbleskiver brunch on Sunday. Anyone interested?
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Oh, I love them. I get so envious of your Twin Cities Baboons!
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basketball wekend
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Both of my alma maters have phoned in the past couple of days and I just can’t say no to their earnest callers (all students) so I give what I can and hope they don’t disdain me for my scant contributions. WOT-daughter is in final rehearsals for The King and I (she is a supplemental wife with the naughtiest children, as well as the angel in the ballet sequence in the Small House of Uncle Thomas, in which she wears a glittering and sequined and beaded yellow costume that makes her (in her mind) look like a fancy banana. She also has to wear a really tall hat that resembles a Thai temple. She is about 6’1″ and the hat makes her about 7 feet tall. Best friend has the part of Anna Leonowens. The director sewed all her fancy dresses and some of them weigh pound and pounds with all the beading and hoops and crinolines.
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Renee, I’d love to see pictures of that. Sounds really gaudy and fun.
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great music. fun play to be in i’ll bet. sneak a camera in and out it on you tube so we can see it. your daughter is 6′ 1″ she grew that tall with no matching soup spoons?
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She is the reason I had to buy new soup spoons!
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I hope someone is taking pictures.
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I intend to snap away as much as I can.
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Haven’t any guesses on Clyde’s riddle.
But for some odd reason the question made me think of those books you could buy in the 60’s that had cartoon pictures with little black dots all over them. The black dots were little concentrated deposits of colored ink. You dipped a paintbrush in water and painted on the dotted areas and they would turn pink or purple or green. What were those called?
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faux artistic
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