With 2008 ending soon, I realized this week that it was time to finish charitable donations to maximize our tax deduction.  Although my wife and I give to many of the same organizations each year, we usually make many contributions at year-end.  Since I so often talk about the advantages of online giving, I decided to make most of our donations on the web.

Interestingly, some of the nonprofits I support haven’t learned the lessons of integrating offline and online campaigns.  Many of the direct mail pieces we received came with increasing frequency, but offered no dedicated web address to use other than the organization home page.  When I went online on one nonprofit’s site, I couldn’t find a way to join or renew my membership, nor could I find a phone number to call.  With the help of Google, I found a phone number and asked that they please not keep wasting my money on constant direct mail requests when I 1) prefer to donate online and 2) want our donations used for the nonprofit’s mission, not for mailing costs.

I’ve also found that even for nonprofits who we support, I am still a bit reluctant to receive email updates throughout the year, possibly because they also come a bit too often and don’t offer enough incentive for me to open them.

Maybe some people take the time to read long direct mail pieces, but I’m not one of them.  Nor do I want to navigate lengthy email messages.  Interestingly, none of the organizations we support asked how often we wanted to be contacted and whether we preferred online or offline communications.  Perhaps these would be good questions to add to your donation form.

There’s one day left – make sure you donate to your favorite causes (even if it’s not as easy as it should be).