Last night I was interrupted twice by solicitation calls. I am trying a variety of approaches with these. One is to ask them for a form 990 - which the IRS says they should send to me without any problem. The callers, of course, have no idea of what a Form 990 is. (It documents how much of the income for a non-profit is used for administrative purposes and how much goes to whatever programs/projects they say they are doing. It is a legitimate request!) Always interesting to hear their hemming and hawing. I have yet to receive a Form 990.
Various "Sheriff and police" related agencies call. I am amazed that, being supposedly connected with law enforcement, they are unwilling to to reveal anything about their agencies!
The second call I tried a different approach. I asked the woman how much she had donated to the organization. I figured that,, if she really believed in what she was doing that she would have made a donation. She claimed she was donating her time. I asked, "You are not getting paid to do this?" "Oh, yes," came her reply. "So, how much have you donated? You expect me to donate, but yoou have given nothing!" "I'll get my supervisor..."
If you have an entertaining way to deal with solicitation calls, I'd be interested in hearing about them. I I put yours in the blog, I will send you a CD!