I am starting posts on business practices, both good and bad.
Here is an example of dishonest business practices. I was once a member and donator to The Nature Conservancy; overall, I like what they do. However, several years ago, they attempted to fund raise off of a contemporary news event. The very first, long run-on sentence of their solicitation letter contained five factual errors – making claims that were easily shown as not true.
I was turned off by that – even wrote a short note to the Conservancy official who had “signed” the solicitation letter suggesting this was not an appropriate way to fund raise. Never heard back from them, of course. Being dishonest is a terrible way to engage in fund raising – and I stopped supporting them after that. But several times per year, I receive “trickery” mailings like this one:
“Annual Renewal Statement” – except I have not been a member in years. Their intent is to mail these at the time of the year when we see bona fide renewal statement requests, with the hopes we accidentally fill this out and send it back.
This is dishonest and reflects badly on The Nature Conservancy. I would like to support their conservation efforts, but I cannot support an organization that lies and uses trickery/
Why do organizations and businesses do this? Does it work? Do most people fall for these scams? Apparently, it must work, so they keep doing it.
But for those with a sense of ethics, this falls flat.
