Letter to the editor: Charities should worry less about stickers

I worked the Owen County booth on the first day of this year’s Kentucky State Fair.
Like many other booths, we had a fish bowl for a gift drawing.
I was fascinated to see the majority of people who took an entry card fill out the requested information not with a pen or pencil but a return-address sticker sent to them by a service organization soliciting donations.
Once my wife sent money to the Wounded Veterans organization, it didn’t take long to receive monthly requests from them all with return stickers as a “thank you.” Plus we are now receiving requests for donations from just about every large 5013C group, all with return-address labels as a “thank you” in advance.
We cannot get off these mailing lists. Our names have been sold and resold many times. A couple of organizations will also include a nickle or a dime along with return labels as an advanced “thank you.” In talking to people at the KSF who were using return labels to put on entry cards at our booth, their story was the same. We all seemed to agree these organizations that send these out are making more disgruntled donors and in the end losing possible donations.
Bill Watson
Owenton