Monday, January 07, 2008

A Charity I Can No Longer Recommend: National Braille Press

I'd probably heard of National Braille Press before, but they came to the forefront of my awareness just before Harry Potter 6 came out when it was announced that in partnership with J.K. Rowling and with the financial assistance of Lumber Liquidators, they had worked really hard and the braille version of Harry Potter 6 would come out the same day as the normal print and audio book versions, no small feat. Something that really impressed me and convinced me that they were doing something great. So when we sold our house and made all that crazy money, we picked some charities... PLU and PLNU to be sure, and then some smaller one like King County Humane Society (who sold or rented our information) and the aforementioned National Braille Press.

My sole complaint with National Braille Press is that they keep sending me stuff in the mail. When we made the donation, and numerous times since, we've indicated that this was a small, one-time gift. And requested to be removed from the mailing list. Despite assurances that it'd been handled, the mail continues. I understand the need for cultivation, but this becomes a broken donor promise and bad stewardship when you say one thing and do something else.

So, as long as the printed mail continues, National Braille Press is breaking its promise to me and throwing away the money we sent them.

Update; I attempted to originally post this on Thursday but it didn't go through. Over the weekend I checked an old email address, the one I used when I made the contribution to NBP. They continue to email me as well.

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