I know you have a job to do, and I expect the pay is dreadful.  In fact I seem to recall someone telling me it is often related to how many mugs donors you manage to recruit.  But please will you learn to LISTEN to what I say (yes I do know about the arctic fox, the plight of the whale, the need for child sponsors in this or that nation, how terrible the regime is in that place, and so on and so forth).  And please don't chuckle away to yourself as you rattle through your script, it's really annoying.  Try to keep in mind that most people you call are a lot older than you, have heard a million times or more what you are saying, and have probably forgotten more about this regime or that environmental concern twenty years ago than you will ever know, so don't talk down to us as if we were eejits, numpties or came down the Clyde on a banana boat.  Oh yes, and when I say I already give away X% of my income (substantially larger than a tithe) and really cannot afford to take on even just £2.38 a week to save the one-horned, one-eyed, flying purple people eater I mean NO - and I am also NOT going to give you £1.69 instead.

OK rant over!

I do give a lot of money, both planned and spontaneous, to assorted charities and causes.  I do try to keep aware of what's what in the world.    I review and adjust my giving sometimes. I even try to be polite to the telephone chuggers.  But please, no more annoying calls from underpaid twenty-somethings who sound as if they have no more interest in the cause they represent than I do in reading the Hong Kong phone directory.