Do You find this OFFENSIVE?

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Request for money..

werewolf, I think that you're being a bit 'thin skinned' regarding money.

It really does not matter what personal agenda that you subscribe to, those folks are going to ask for help in spreading that point of view.

I'm a Red Cross Volunteer, complete with Photo ID Badge and all the trimmings. I regularly donate blood, skill, and other resources. Guess what, they still ask for more help. I'm on a mailing list. Impersonal computer generated correspondence/phone calls just keep on commin'.

Church activities are the same.

Contribute money to any worthwhile cause, and, guess what, you're gonna hear from them again in the future.

Fact is, gettin' the message out, no matter what the message is, or where your sympathies lie, costs money.

If you wanna ride along of the coat-tails of someone else's commitment and dedication, you are free to do so.

Kinda like other aspects of 'freedom', you are free to enjoy the benefits, but it seems as though you are offended if you are asked to participate.

The term 'sophmoric' comes to mind.

You seem to be happy to let someone else pay for your admission to the picture show, and then complain that you didn't like the movie.

salty.

P.S...

It you care to continue this conversation, I suggest we use PMs. The keyboard is starting to get a bit warmed up.

sd.
 
It takes some money to pay the salaries of these top Non-profit groups CEOs. See below . . .

Name & Title Organization Top Salary*
Harold Varmus, M.D., President/CEO Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center $2,252,818
Avi Becker, Secretary General World Jewish Congress (American Section $1,266,106
Includes $1 million in severance pay
Stephen D. Solender, President Emeritus United Jewish Communities $1,068,924
Includes $694,212 in supplementary employee retirement plan benefits
Roy Williams, Chief Scout Executive Boy Scouts of America - N.O. $913,022
Barbara M. Silverstone, President/ CEO Lighthouse International $820,392
Includes $510,427 of unpaid vested benefits
Wayne Lapierre, Jr., Executive VP National Rifle Association $810,705
John Seffrin, CEO American Cancer Society $760,953
Lynn Taussig, M.D., President/CEO National Jewish Medical & Research Center $721,186
Edwin J. Feulner, Jr., President/CEO Heritage Foundation $687,296
Richard A. Murphy, President/CEO Salk Institute for Biological Studies $666,592
Steven E. Sanderson, President/ CEO Wildlife Conservation Society $651,243
Myra Biblowit, President
Breast Cancer Research Foundation $645,271
Brian A. Gallagher, President/CEO United Way of America $629,950
Larry E. Kun, M.D., Chair Radiation Oncology St. Jude Children's Research Hospital $599,448
Robert J. Beall, President/CEO Cystic Fibrosis Foundation $599,156
Mitchell S. Rosenthal, M.D., President Phoenix House Foundation/ Development Fund $584,007
M. Cass Wheeler, CEO American Heart Association $583,787
Has $814,006 severance agreement about which the AHA states, "The likelihood of meeting the conditions for full payment is remote. A more likely future severance payment would approximate $203,502."
Christopher C. DeMuth, President/ Trustee American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research $567,092
Peter Van Etten, President/CEO Juvenile Diabetes Research Fdn. $544,853
John H. Graham IV, Past CEO American Diabetes Association $533,058
Includes supplemental executive retirement benefit of $362,522
John P. Howe III, M.D., President/ CEO Project Hope/People to People Health Foundation $523,038
Hugh B. Price, President/CEO National Urban League $513,275
Gloria A. Feldt, President Planned Parenthood Federation of America $507,762
Marilyn Gentry, President American Institute for Cancer Research $497,434
Includes housing allowance


It takes almost 1100 new life members a year to pay Waynes salary :)
 
[throws hands up in a gesture of surrender] Y'all win!

I will close though with this one last thought...

Isn't it ironic
ROFLMAO.gif
that most folks are terribly offended and find it in bad taste for someone, even a friend, to ask them how much they earn a year or what they paid for their house but find it totally alright for an impersonal organization to request that it be added to that same person's will... :banghead:
 
that most folks are terribly offended and find it in bad taste for someone, even a friend, to ask them how much they earn a year or what they paid for their house but

Frankly, most folks where you are must be different from me and my friends. We wouldn't think twice about asking how much one another's house costs, or other belongings. Earnings are a tad more sensitive though, I'd admit that.
 
I don't ask what others make. I'm not really worried about offending them, I just don't care:D One of the reasons people get touchy about that is status. I judge status by things other than bank account. I'm not worried about telling what I make. After all, the IRS knows and I don't know anyone who scares me more than them. I didn't buy my house, I inherited it. But I paid the last ten years of the mortgage payments on it. About 36K. It ain't a big deal, guy.

The will thing is a common request by many organizations in fund raising.

It's not a big deal. And, no, I'm not offended. Reckon I don't get offended as easily as you do.
 
Hmm, lets see, my wife and I receive requests for trusts/wills, and annuities from at least 1 grade school, 4 high schools, 3 universities, 10 (at least) religious groups, 2 military groups, 2 veteran groups, 1 church, 3 magazines!!, 2 conservation groups, 1 state government department, who knows what else that I toss out.
Don't get too uptight about this. Everyone asks for you to help them with their political, religious, missionary, charitable, whatever cause. If you don't like it, ignore it. They are not hovering over your deathbed like vultures eagerly awaiting your demise.
Responsible people plan for what happens to their assets after they move on. Try to make some plans. I have had to deal with three family estates with no wills and one with a will. They can be hard work even with planning. Think about what you want to do with your stuff. Who gets it? family? friends? charities? causes that you like?
Me? If all those groups wanting something from me later actually found my true net worth, they would regret wasting their postage on such a pauper!
 
As TexasSIGman notes, National Review, supposedly a for-profit weekly opinion magazine, has a Foundation; they hawk for it in every issue.

The NRA needs money, lots of it. If they never ask, they'll never receive.

And asking for people, in the course of their estate planning, to consider making a bequest to a worthy cause, like the NRA Foundation or the NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund, is entirely meet. They are not coming to your death bed, or to your widow at your funeral. It is an ad aimed at the entire readership of AFF or AR.

Nothing tacky or offensive about it.
 
If I were in a hospital with a terminal illness and Wayne walked up to my deathbed asking me to put them in my will, I'd probably be offended. Otherwise, as most others here, I don't find the ad offensive in the least.

Everyone leaves their money behind to someone or something. Money left behind to an organization like the NRA-ILA is in my view, better than leaving money behind to say, Paris Hilton. :)
 
Werewolf said:
[throws hands up in a gesture of surrender] Y'all win!

I will close though with this one last thought...

Isn't it ironic
ROFLMAO.gif
that most folks are terribly offended and find it in bad taste for someone, even a friend, to ask them how much they earn a year or what they paid for their house but find it totally alright for an impersonal organization to request that it be added to that same person's will... :banghead:

Don't bother me a bit.
 
guys I got news....colleges and universities make the same requests of their alumni....this is nothing new.
 
Oh, yeah, and since we're on the topic of wills:

Whoever lives the longest, and dies with the most toys, the most debt, atop the biggest pile of brass, in front of the largest field full of dead enemies....wins. :neener:
 
Well since we are talking about death and the NRA I knew this guy I grew up with. He looked like a sterotypical country boy which he was. He wore over-alls, was a big BUBBA in size and I would say average IQ. But see he had a big heart would do anything for anyone. He was never going to be close to rich if he cleared 10,000 a year he would have felt rich. He was the type of person so many just ignore. Well he died about 3 years ago. I remember his obituitary in our small town paper. It really touched me where it was listed --------He was a member of the NRA. That was his big thing in life and he was proud of it. That 35.00 he sent in each year was like the poor woman in the Bible giving a penny and Jesus saying she gave the most because it was all she had. He was a nobody to most but being part of the NRA made him part of something important.
 
No I do not find it offensive. If you outlive your immediate family and have no children, the money has got to go somewhere. Better the NRA get it than the state.
 
Am I alone in this feeling? Am I wrong to feel this way?
No, I don't guess that you are.
No, I don't guess that you have to be wrong.

That said, while there's a certain macabre take on this, there's a lot of practicality to it, to. The median age for NRA Life Members is pretty high. Many NRA members have funds that they can's really afford to spend right now, but feel strongly about supporting the RKBA. It's a worthwhile resource to consider tapping.
 
There's no need for this post since you've all responded to the question with about every reasonable argument that can be made. I confess to being an ex-fundraiser, professionally. The only other small point that I can add is that in survey after survey, what is the number one response to an organization's query, " Why haven't you given money to XYZ before?"

1. "Because nobody asked me."

Werewolf, I do get exactly why you're offended. I just ask that you take a deep breath and let the logic of this thread's arguments percolate a while. Sure as death and taxes, literally, if the NRA doesn't ask for you support, it will go to someone else. That's just the cold hard reality of it. Organizations ask for money from us whle we're alive. So why not give that one last gift as we go to that big shooting range in the sky? And let me assure you, from one who has asked for donations many times in many ways, all gifts are deeply appreciated by the asking organization. If not, they've got their heads in a pretty dark place, so to speak. So just let it sit a while. Is there any church, university, hospital, anything that you believe in passionately enough to ask for its support from someone else? It can be a hard thing to do, and I suspect you may be projecting your own persona onto the task and that you find it odious. But even if you can't imagine yourself doing it, a little tip of the hat to those who do might be appropriate. Wayne LP does not like doing this, probably. Heck, the whole NRA staff would probably jump for joy at never having to ask for a dime if it were all taken care of. But who or what would do that? So, for all the faults of the NRA, of distasteful money-grubbing, and the dog-eat-dog world of non-profit survival, do you really want to sit this one out? Someone's going to benefit by your estate. Why not the NRA?
 
PS—To those of you who are childless and pondering how to pass on your gun collections, I offer myself up for adoption. White male, 52, doesn't smoke cigars indoors, overwieght but cuddly, housebroken. Reasonably good company. Wife also available for light housekeeping.
 
Didn't really bother me at all. In fact, as I have no children and have never been married and have a very small immediate family, I may just be donating some stuff to the NRA when I die.

I not sure if I'll ever marry or have children, I'm already a "old maid" (what do you call the guy eqiuvilant?) in my culture! Funny, it seems that women and my hobby just don't mix at least in my area!
 
Not well worded, but the idea of establishing a trust to fund the NRA or GOA or any other social organisation is an excellent idea if you believe in the cause.

If I can receive the begging letters in the hereafter I'll be impressed.
 
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