Note of the Living Deb

My financial situation is no worse than it was before the pandemic, yet I am also (I assume) getting the $1200 stimulus check later. Because I am selfish and can use the money, I will keep half. Because I want to be fair, I want to redistribute the other half somehow to people who need it more.

Here some ideas I have after a couple of weeks of brainstorming and paying attention.


Don't make things worse

Edited 4/10/20 to add this category.

"One of the difficulties with figuring out how to help is not un-helping by accident. In my area, a woman decided to help by making lunches for the hospital workers, until the hospital asked her politely to please stop. The rescue mission where I normally volunteer tells me that the influx of wanna-be helpers has overwhelmed the kitchen staff, who had do deal with training newbies in an already stressful time. I’m sure the list goes on." Miser Mom, in the comments to How to help people, how to keep sane


People I Know

One recently widowed person I know (I'm trying to keep her anonymous, but if you know me well, you can probably guess) can no longer afford her house payments and is trying to sell her house and move to a cheaper location. She was mostly packed when the market crashed (only flippers would want her house, so her real estate agent took the house off the market). Now she's stuck also paying a monthly storage fee for the moving pod full of her stuff. I plan to give her $200.


The Self-employed

Do you want a serious sci fi book set in a dystopian (fighting, racist against self-aware robots) future, centered on a teenager whose parents just got their dream jobs in a robot lab and a preacher who started hearing from God? It has great characters and fun dialog. I'm getting my own copy of that book and have one friend in mind who I'm going to ask whether she prefers paper or electronic books and get her one, too.

There are a couple other self-published books that Robin has bought that I am reading to see if I love them enough to get my own copy. So far, no.

I have a friend who's selling home-made face masks. I'm thinking of buying some. But I'm also thinking of making my own--but I haven't yet.

I'm also trying to remember if there is any art or Etsy-type stuff I've been wanting that maybe I should stop putting off.

Of course most of this type of spending is selfish, too. Also, I'm still going to my favorite mom-and-pop restaurants and getting take-out with a $2 hazardous pay increase in the tip, but that's with my regular money.

Edited 4/10/20 to add these other ideas: Buy gift certificates for restaurants, theatres. Ask if you can pre-pay for future service (hair cuts, maid visits) or just keep paying as if you were getting it. Books from bookstores that have delivery. Support content creators.

Frugalwoods says, "We’ve just found a neighbor to buy eggs from and we already have a local source for beef. I’ll be on the lookout for any other neighbors selling goods in our hyper-local economy in the coming weeks."


Food Banks

It would be much more effective to help food banks. But that's kind of treating the symptoms rather than fighting the cause directly, which is my preferred method of helping.

Edited 4/9/20 to add that in an interview on The Daily Show, Roxanne Gay recommended food banks, Planned Parenthood, and RAINN (which fights domestic violence).

Edited 4/10/20 to add charities that fight homelessness and also that support minorities because they are suffering the most.

Also The Cut has 102 Ways to Give Back During the Coronavirus Pandemic, most of which are in this category. Their subcategories include:
* Giving to restaurant relief funds
* Donating masks and medical supplies
* Supporting frontline workers
* Fighting hunger
* Uplifting small businesses and workers
* Defending the vulnerable


Fighting the Cause

Is there any way I can use the money to actually reduce the severity of the crisis directly? For example, is there a way to help start-ups making ventilators? A way to help hospitals buy/rent temp buildings?

I found this Go Fund Me campaign for face masks, but do hospitals really want this kind of mask?

"Fidelity Charitable has collaborated with the Center for Disaster Philanthropy to provide a list of organizations offering relief and support services. "These organizations can accommodate a large influx of donations and have a strong, established record of excellence." They have page on how to help with "Immediate medical needs to address COVID-19 include supplies, such as surgical masks, isolation gowns, and other protective equipment. Organizations such as hospitals and health systems are also preparing to respond to the anticipated surge in coronavirus cases, coordinating additional staff and specialists to support local medical personnel, specialized medical equipment, and portable clinics required for isolation, screening and treatment." That sounds like what I'm looking for.

The first organization on the list is the National Foundation for the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Inc. (CDC Foundation) - this sounds good to me.

But the second one is Gates Philanthropy Partners. Ugh. Yes, this is much nicer than most of what Gates does, but I do not like that guy and he already has enough power.

Then they list several organizations I've heard of for other reasons such as Americares and Partners in Health (but not Doctors Without Borders).

And then there's something called the "United Nations Foundation's COVID-19 Response Fund." That sounds good, too, but I haven't looked it up.


Non-monetary help

(Edited 4/10/20 to add this category.)

Frugalwoods talks about a neighborhood committee where some people volunteer to go into town to buy groceries, prescriptions, etc., and some volunteer as organizers to answer phone and email requests for aid and offers of assistance and communicate with the buyers.

Donate blood or, especially if you've recovered from the virus, plasma.

Teach people to use electronic meeting systems. Use these with kids you know, to give the parents a break.

Leave reviews for art and small businesses you like; contact managers with compliments they should hear.

Donate unneeded extras.


Other Ideas

Do y'all have any other ideas on how we can make a real difference?

Edited 4/10/20 - My current plan is to donate cash to The CDC Foundation.

We can't contribute to all the important causes, but if we all pick a few, the world will be a better place for it. Normally I focus most of my contributions into three areas: protecting the environment, fighting poverty, and fighting pain/abuse/torture. This year I feel like I also want to support civil rights. I'm still narrowing down my choices.

Environment

* Rainforest Foundation - I like this one slightly more than the Nature Conservancy and Conservation International because I've heard it's more effective. I don't really know. I love the way they all pick some environmentally important land and protect it.

Poverty

I'm deciding between a few different ones.

* Accion International and FINCA International - Old favorites - microlenders, they lend money to poor people, mostly for businesses; when they repay it, it gets lent again. Also, borrowers get to be in support groups. Interest rates tend to be high, though. And I've heard that sometimes the loans are for things like doctor bills, so that makes it feel more like exploitative payday loans.

* Give Directly - Solves the interest problem make making grants rather than loans. I may switch to this.

* Engineers Without Borders - they dig wells and build schools and stuff

* Against Malaria Foundation - Rated #1 by GiveWell as the most effective/efficient way to help with poverty. I think I prefer to focus on food and water rather than a specific disease, though.

Pain/Abuse/Torture

I've experimented with crisis centers and pain research institutes but I think this year I'll just pick the one classic to free up money for civil rights.

* Amnesty International

Rights

John Oliver and the bloggers at Grumpy Rumblings have provided me with many great ideas, but I want to drastically narrow down the list. In alphabetical order:

* American Civil Liberties Union (advocates for the rights of many groups)
* Center for Reproductive Rights (women's health)
* Council on American-Islamic Relations
* Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) (protect digital privacy and free expression)
* International Refugee Assistance Project
* It Gets Better (LGBT youth)
* NAACP Legal Defense Fund (blacks)
* Trevor Project (lgbtq youth)
* Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
* New York Times, Washington Post, Pro Publica (journalists/truth)
* RAINN (helping survivors and preventing sexual violence: 68% helping survivors, 27% educating the public, 5% improving public policy)
* Southern Poverty Law Center (many)
* Union of Concerned Scientists (truth, facts, effectiveness)

Currently I'm leaning toward the Southern Poverty Law Center, which I've been getting a fair amount of news about over the past year. They bring lawsuits when they feel people are breaking the Constitution. Normally I think that's too expensive and that my dollar doesn't go far, but this year I feel that the courts have been our only working check (as in checks-and-balances). And I'm really feeling it for refugees, so I'm also leaning toward the International Refugee Assistance Project. But then my own personal biggest fear is losing net neutrality--who even knows what all kinds of repercussions that could have, so I'm also thinking about Electronic Frontier Foundation

Catch-All

One group I like fits into many categories: low-cost health care helps the impoverished, (voluntary) birth control helps the planet, and they're also advocating for women's rights. They even provided water filters to Detroit residents.

* Planned Parenthood


Exercise update

Saturday - I did what I refer to as my pilates video. It's called "Pick Your Level Weight-Loss Pilates." It actually has all kinds of exercises, not just pilates. (As you might guess, many of the exercises have three levels you can choose from.) It gets me panting, uses muscles, has stretching, and has sometimes-hilarious activities requiring good balance.

Sunday - I just walked. Though I did do some bicep curls at the grocery store with my basket. I've been shying away from exercising on days when Robin doesn't have to work. That's silly.

Monday - I did a Silver Sneakers class at the gym (part aerobic, part strength training). After this class, I've started also doing the lat pull-down machine because I would like to be able to do pull-ups someday. In the evening, I went walking with R and Indigo Rose.

Video link of the day - Act Your Age But Exercise Like a Kid - I failed to find a review I wrote of "Pick Your Level Weight-Loss Pilates," but I did find this hilarious video again. Watch a grown man in a suit hop around with an inflated toy and try jumping through a hula hoop with it.

Quote of the day - "The Trump presidency is basically a marathon. It's painful. It's pointless, and the majority of you didn't even agree to run it; you were just signed up by your dumbest friend." But "the stakes are too high for any of us to stop." - John Oliver, (The Trump Presidency: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, ~19:20, 11/12/17) - Sorry, I know a lot of not-dumb people were even more afraid of the other candidates than of him and/or felt that that he was extreme but in a direction they wanted to go and thought Congress would keep things reasonable. However we voted or even if we didn't vote, do keep writing your reps about your opinions. I think they should be doing unbiased surveys to find out, but instead they see who writes or calls them.

The second lecture of Nerd Nite was "A Planetarium for Austin; an Historical Perspective," by Torvald Hessel.

The oldest planetarium that is still working (although it's now called an orrery rather than a planetarium) was built in 1774 in the Netherlands. A wool comber built it in his attic. He wanted to base it off a 24-hour clock, but the pendulum required for such a clock was too long to fit in the attic so he had to cut a slot in the floor. Then the pendulum swung right over the bed, between him and his wife, and his wife nixed the idea. So, he switched to an 18-hour clock, which could use a shorter pendulum.

He built this orrery to prove that the forthcoming alignment of the planets was not, in fact, going to mean the end of the world, because our solar system is actually heliocentric rather than earth-centric. It's a model of the solar system with all the planets rotating the sun with the same periods as they do in real life.

Our speaker explained that once again, the world is predicted to end in the near future (12/21/12), and he tried to debunk the evidence, thus:
* Yes, the Mayan calendar ends. Just like ours does every year.
* The so-called lethal alignment happens every year.
* Niburu, the sister shadow planet set to collide with earth, should surely be detectable by now, but it's not.
* The planets are not actually aligning.
* Although the earth's magnetic field probably will flip, there's a little thing called inertia that will keep the earth spinning.
* Nostradamus said a lot of things.

[Hmm, not particularly convincing. Maybe we should have a party on the Saturday night preceding this date. Just in case.]

The speaker said that Austin is the largest city in the United States (#15) with no planetarium and no science museum. He said in fact all the top fifty cities in the US have planetariums except Austin. Dallas has 13 planetariums. Even Oklahoma City has a good science museum.

He said planetariums are based on a dome shape, which he feels is beautiful and does not need to be disguised, like the one in Midland (Texas) shaped like an oil drum. There's one in Valencia (shaped like a big eye). There's even one on the Queen Mary 2 (cruise ship). So surely Austin could have one.

And we should want one. A study in Houston showed that a planetarium led to a 24% increase in related test scores. Even more importantly, it lead to an 11% increase in the interest in science careers. (A study in England showed a 20% increase in such interest for girls.)

Our speaker grew up in the Netherlands and worked in a planetarium in Amsterdam. When he moved here, he started working to get a planetarium built, though he knew nothing about nonprofits and fund raising. But now he's getting companies to support the idea.

The UT Center for Space Research (old MCC building) has donated office space. There's a proposed design (click on "Austin Planetarium"). There's a proposed location (the little-used parking lot in front of the Bob Bullock Texas History museum). And there's a proposed projector. Right now Goto in Japan and Zeiss in Germany make projectors; these cost about $4 million. A new Japanese company makes $400,000 projectors that are so good that you can use binoculars and even telescopes inside the planetarium to see more. You can guess which one of these is proposed.

If want to help, he recommended the following:
* become a subscriber of The Austin Planetarium Newsletter -- this helps them show interest.
* Become a fan on Facebook.
* Make a donation.
* Ask Torvald to speak at your company or other group.

(I actually sent an e-mail proposing Highland mall instead of the parking lot I actually use when I'm watching IMAX movies at the History museum. And I proposed that in addition to working with the UT College of Education like he mentioned, he also work with the UT College of Natural Sciences which has more money and which actually houses the program to education future science teachers.)

Who knew a planetarium might be in our future? Cool.

Bad News in Chocolate - The Godiva store in Highland Mall is closing on Wednesday, April 7. Prices are now 25% off on everything (40% off on Easter stuff). Indigo Rose says this is the only local Godiva location that serves the icy chocolate drinks. I plan to try to get one last one on Wednesday. The inventory still looked completely full this evening. [Interestingly, their big containers of hot chocolate, which are always $10, everywhere, are suddenly (25% off of) $11.]

Today the fine folks at La Madeleine sent me an interesting e-mail from which I learned:
* The La Madeleine nearest me (Lamar and 38th-ish) is closing down this Sunday. And here I thought they had plenty of guaranteed business being located just outside the hospital. La Madeleine food is always good, but after eating hospital food for a stretch? Yummm.
* La Madeleine now has a "Chocolate Cherry Melt" which reminds me of those whipped-cream-on-a-bun things I loved from Belgium only it looks like the buns are made from bread with dried cherries and chocolate chips and the filling is probably milk chocolate hazelnut ganache (perhaps aka Nutella).
* La Madeleine has provided a recipe for milk chocolate hazelnut ganache, which is great because you can easily turn it into dark chocolate hazelnut ganache, but which I am unlikely to ever make because it looks time-consuming, has some weirdo ingredients, and requires cleaning out a food processor full of Nutella afterwards. Ugh.
* This weekend is the Austin Chocolate Festival at which you can taste this new Chocolate Cherry Melt.

That festival looks a bit pricey to me ($21.65 for the cheaper day), so I probably won't go. Even though you can get $5 from the folks at Oil Is Dumb ("Get paid to live greener") if you show evidence of having arrived by bus or bicycle. (The evidence would be a bus transfer ticket or your bicycle.) I would actually be more likely to just walk, though it looks to be ugly walking distance from my house.

I'd never heard of Oil is Dumb, but if you're right on the edge of doing things a little greener and can be talked into stepping over the line with silly-small amounts of money, you might want to check out their monthly challenges called "no-brainers." This month's challenge is to check the air pressure on your car's tires and, if it isn't ideal, to make it so. If you accept this challenge and provide evidence, they'll give you $5. Some of the challenges are worth $10.

And from there I learned about another organization called I Live Here I Give Here where you can look up non-profit organizations doing work in Austin.

What a bunch of lovable weirdos. I love this town, even if they are closing down the best, most convenient, most central, and easternmost branch of La Madeleine.

Neighborhood Association Member

Today I became a paying member of my neighborhood association for the first time. I have mixed feelings about this, but now I am supporting the newsletter, which I love.

I also found out that some of the association's money is going to neighborhood charities. Extrapolating from the Treasurer's report for the last two months (probably unsafe), about half the funds were spent on the newsletter and the other half were spent on donations. I looked up what those were:
* NE Caregivers - "a coalition of congregations and community groups whose mission is to help seniors to live independently" - it's oxymoronic and religious, but sounds basically helpful.
* Care Communities - provides "practical and compassionate support to those living with AIDS" - also religious, but hey, religious people who don't think people with AIDS are going to hell sound good to me.
* Memorial United Methodist Church - the church where the meetings are held
* Messiah Food Pantry - this one's Lutheran and serves 20-30 families each week. I learned from researching this that they purchase food from the Capitol Area Food Bank. Weird, I would have thought it would be free. I suppose it's at least cheap?
* the neighborhood community garden (with apparently no religious affiliations!)

Now that we are members, in six months, we will be qualified to vote on any city initiatives which are passed separately for each neighborhood.

Jury Duty

Today I got my third summons for jury duty, but this is the first time that we have been able to answer the summons online rather than in person. And this may be the first time I actually serve. (The first time I was an alternate, and they never needed to call any alternates. The second time, the issue was settled out of court before it was time to select jurors.)

Interviewing

Yesterday I did my first (and second) job interview as an interviewer. A co-worker and I did the interviews together. I was worried that we hadn't had enough time to prepare, but I think the interviews went well.

We each thought up questions and improved each other's questions. Then we broke them into three sections: introductory questions, questions on things were looking for, and conclusion questions. We picked a time limit for each section so we wouldn't leave too little time for the later section(s). Within each section we ordered the questions by priority so that we could list all our questions, but if we ran out of time we would not have missed asking the most important questions. For some questions where it was hard to get at what we were trying to figure out, we wrote back-up questions in case the answer wasn't useful enough. We tagged each question with who was to ask it.

We also sat right next to each other on one side of the table with the candidate on the other side so the candidate would not have to turn his/her head from side to side like at a tennis match. And we faced ourselves toward the clock so we could keep track of the time more discretely than by looking at our watches.

My co-worker would add follow-up information based on the candidate's answers, and I started doing that too. This was especially the case when an answer showed that the candidate thought the job was something other than what it really was. Instead of sitting there thinking that obviously this candidate doesn't want our job, we would clear them up and ask what they thought about that.

As it turned out, we had plenty of time for all the questions. Things went very smoothly with all three of us interacting smoothly. I feel like I did get some idea of what the person might be like (though I have no hint on whether they are lying or deluded about their abilities).

Actually, I might have some clue. For both candidates I was able to notice something they weren't comfortable with by the way they suddenly got a little more tongue-tied. For example one person clearly would have had trouble with traveling when she thought it might be required every month. But once she got us to clarify that it was once a year, that was obviously no problem. So that made me feel a little less like I might be completely, utterly gullible.

I've done some more research on charities to which to donate.

I checked my local food coop to see if any of the charities they contribute to were in my newer categories (pain treatment, torture, child abuse). Nope. They are mostly focused on environmental, food, and coop issues.

I reviewed my employer's latest charitable contribution brochure which lists a huge number of charities. They screen charities to make sure they are nonprofit, that their accounts are reviewed annually, and that they don't spend an exorbitant percentage of their funds on administration.

Poverty
I did more research on Engineers without Borders although they are not on my employer's list. Improving infrastructure is decidedly not band-aid-like. However, their administrative costs look high (but could this be because many donations, such as the time of the engineers, is not included in the accounting?). I think I will contribute a little to this group. I also got another suggestion I am thinking about--I'm not sure it fits into my vision of what this category is for.

Pain
Although pain treatment for surgery has improved, it's quite possible that pain options for cancer and arthritis are still terrible. I think I will continue donating in this area.

Torture
The only organization addressing torture that is listed in the brochure is Amnesty International. Wikipedia says they won a Nobel Peace Prize and that they are sometimes criticized for not taking into account the need for security. Score. They are getting some of this year's money.

Child abuse
My employer had many listings for groups fighting child abuse. These notes are really just for me, so please skip past these as you're reading because there are just so many:
* Center for Child Protection - first stop for child victims of alleged abuse, provides free thereapeutic services during the investigation/prosecution of child abuse cases (5.54%)
* Central Texas Youth Services Bureau - counseling, emergency shelter, transitional living, hotline (16.18%) Other counties.
* Children's Advocacy Center of Central Texas - provides specialized services to child abuse victims and their families through Children's Advocacy Center and Court Appointed Special Advocates Programs (1.92%). Located in Belton
* Families in Crisis, Inc.safe shelter, counseling and outreach. (7.18%) Shelter, outreach, and prevention in Bell, Coryell, and Hamilton Counties.
* Family Connections - provide parents and early learning programs with resources and services to prevent child abuse and neglect (7.93%) "Despite written Better Business Bureau requests in the past year, this organization either has not provided current information or has declined to be evaluated in relation to BBB's charity standards." Parent education.
* Family Crisis Center - provides refuge and other services to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault or child abuse (17.5%) Based in Bastrop. Includes prevention.
* Helping Hand Home for Children - provides residential treatment services and therapeutic foster care to child victims (18.7%)
* Hill Country Children's Advocacy Center - provides emotional healing services (6.1%) - mostly make sure that all interviewing of alleged victims is done in one place instead of several places that don't communication to minimize additional trauma
* National Children's Advocacy Center - to model and promote excellence in child abuse response and prevention. Increases awareness, education, and resources to protect all children (19.05%) The BBB received a call from Laura Emerson on August 23, 2005 requesting more time needed to complete the questionnaire and return the accompanying materials. This report will be updated when the data has been received and evaluated by the BBB.
* Prevent Child Abuse Texas - stops violence and brings hope and safety to Texas' abused and neglected children (14.32%) They merely want to change society. (BBB-basically seems okay)
* SafePlace - provides hotline, shelter, transitional housing, counseling, children's services, case management, violence prevention and other services for adults and children hurt by sexual and domestic violence (15.58%) Community education, crisis and long-term intervention. Despite written Better Business Bureau requests in the past year, this organization either has not provided current information or has declined to be evaluated in relation to BBB's charity standards.
* Settlement Club - provide a nurturing continuum of care for abused and neglected children. (7.68%) Provides intense counseling followed by foster care and adoption (at least for girls)

I googled "best child abuse charities." I found Charity Watch which actually rates charities, but only based on percent spent on charitable purpose and cost to raise $100. Uh, those are somewhat important, but not the main point. Still, their top grades are for
* Child Find of America (A+)
* Children's Defense Fund (A)
* American Human Association (A-)

Robin also suggested Big Brothers and Big Sisters. When he volunteered there, he got the very distinct impression that they were looking for nice male role models for boys who just didn't have any in their families (only mean, abusive males). Interesting.

I checked out the Better Business Bureau but found nothing of interest there on these organizations. It seems like it would be most handy for large organizations. So I checked out the following (skip to the last one for quicker reading):

Nature Conservancy - meets all 20 standards for charity accountability.
- Programs: 78%  Fund Raising: 9%  Administrative: 13% 
Conservation International - meets all but 2 standards.
- Programs: 84%  Fund Raising: 5%  Administrative: 11%
Planned Parenthood - meets all standards.
- Programs: 76%  Fund Raising: 15%  Administrative: 9% 
FINCA International - meets all but one standard.
- Programs: 90%  Fund Raising: 3%  Administrative: 7%
ACCION International - meets all standards.
- Programs: 77%  Fund Raising: 10%  Administrative: 13%
Engineers without Borders - no data
Arthritis and Cancer Pain Research Center - no data
Amnesty International - meets all standards.
- Programs: 82%  Fund Raising: 16%  Administrative: 2%
JustGive - no report yet; 0 complaints.
American Red Cross - meets all 20 standards.
- Programs: 95%  Fund Raising: 2%  Administrative: 3%  (These Red Cross numbers surprise me greatly. In fact, it makes me distrust all these numbers.)

Maybe it's no good for large organizations, either, because they can afford to hire people to massage their numbers. Or maybe instead of looking up the national programs, I should have looked up local branches. Bleh--I'm going to ignore these finance numbers, for this year, anyway (except that I know Conservation International must spend less than the Nature Conservancy on the begging, based on how much they don't beg me, so I give them some of my money even though I don't know if their work is as well-respected as that of the Nature Conservancy).

Meanwhile, I still have very little clue about how to help with child abuse. When I read about prevention, I see parent education programs. Do those just teach parents that it's not okay to leave the kids in the car while you're in the grocery store? Some train parents on what's appropriate for little kids at different ages so their expectations line up better with reality. Some of them have anger management training. But then pedophiles know what they're doing is wrong and they do it anyway and they are very hard to cure. Other types of abuse may or may not be similar. So how effective are these programs? How could you even measure effectiveness?

If they're not effective, it would be better to go with the crisis intervention and counseling groups. But then you hear rumors about people abusing their powers and dragging kids out of perfectly good homes after the parents are accused by the Evil Uncle retaliating against some perceived mistreatment of themselves. I could make sure to target places where people come to them for help. But maybe the other ones are more important. I just don't know.

I am sick of researching (depressing!) and will probably go for one organization that does a little bit of everything.

I got the most hilarious request for donations today from the Rude Mechanicals, a local theatre group.

The front is a full-color page titled "Sub-Prime Philanthropy." It compares this concept to sub-prime lending in three ways.

1. "In sub-prime lending, a lender offers an enormous amount of money for an initially low monthly payment." [Picture of smiling young guy in a suit with a big wad of cash, a cigar, and one raised eyebrow.] "In sub-prime philanthropy, a charity offers a vision of enormous impact for an initially modest donation." [Graph of vision (in tera-wows) compared to units of generosity.]

2. "In sub-prime lending, the borrower's initially low monthly payments quickly balloon, due to any number of factors: changes in the APR, hidden penalties, or automatic refinancing. In sub-prime philanthropy, the patron's initially modest gift is met with ever-increasing demands due to cost overruns, the failure of the U.S. government to support the arts, legacy fixation, or megalomania."

That is so true! So many charities say you can make a really big difference for only, say $25, but once you donate they keep asking for more and more, and they beg you more and more often. It's to the point where I mostly only donate anonymously through JustGive just so those guys won't get my contact information.

I'm afraid I'm not going to donate anything to the Rude Mechanicals as a result of this mail. But I may start throwing around the term "sub-prime philanthropy."

(Note: the next piece of mail I opened was an offer for a credit card which is fee-free for the first year, "a savings of $95," and which offers 5 points for every dollar you spend at various places until 5/31/08. It's a sub-prime credit card!)

I'm not happy with the term sub-prime for these types of things though. It's more like what drug dealers do (first try is free!). Is there a name for that sort of marketing? If so, I'd rather use that term.