The Donor/Charity Contract

The (Current but Outdated) Donor Contract
When you give us a gift, we own your name. We have the right to communicate with you as often as we want; contact you by any medium we choose (we’re exempt from national do-not-call legislation); keep you on our mailing list in perpetuity (if you ask to be removed from our list, it will take us up to three months to do so); and rent your name to other organizations at our discretion and for our benefit.

There’s a contract between nonprofits and their donors. And frankly, it’s not all that attractive to donors. If donors knew what they were signing up for, how many of them would still give?