I saw a good editorial cartoon in the paper the other day that just showed some fat lady texting "haiti" to the red cross to donate, and it said "Compassion v2.0" above it.
Have to admit, the "text to donate" is a pretty ingenious way to milk cash out of people. People like to feel that they made a difference and did their part to help, but they also don't want to actually have to do anything. Now with text-to-donate, you can contribute a $10 donation without even leaving your seat. Also, since there isn't an immediate "pull a 10-spot out of your wallet", it's also a lot "easier" to give money when it won't show up until a few extra dollars on your cell phone bill. A sappy commercial showing homeless kids and ruined buildings also helps pry open that flip-phone.
While I am an admitted cheap-ass, that's really not the reason I never donate to anything big. I made the mistake of donating $50 to the local Sheriff office once(hoping to get one of those get-out-of-a-ticket stickers). Within a week I was getting calls from every Sheriff, P.D, firehouse and charity around.
The only thing I regularly donate to is the old VFW guy selling the fake red flowers in front of the supermarket. It just comes off as genuine, the vet there is always friendly and has a smile, no matter how much you put in the pot, and I like to put the red flower on my bike's handlebars. Something about massive, multi-national charities that advertise in primetime TV just doesn't jive, espically when they say stuff like "over 60% of every dollar goes right to third world hospitals" or something. What about the other 40%? They don't tell you whose pockets that lines.
