Do non-profits even notice nickel-and-dime donors?
Recently, one of our favorite non-profits sent us a request for a contribution, thanking us for having made a small donation in 2021. I wrote back naming the total that we had given them in 2021, saying that it was downright insulting that the small donation that their e-mail had mentioned was the only donation for which they were thanking us. The non-profit had the good grace to apologize for having mentioned only our most recent donation, noting that we'd been donors since 2011.
I think we're having a similar problem with the local "Jewish community charity," UJA-Federation (formerly United Jewish Appeal-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies). Once upon a time, we used to make a half-decent-sized donation (low three-figures) once a year. But now that we're both retired, we prefer to make small donations roughly once a month. Here's the catch: Given the number of requests for contributions that we get from UJA-Fed, I don't think they've even noticed that, over the course of a year, our small donations add up to almost the same amount that we used give in one annual donation.
How much does a person/entity have to donate to be seen? And aren't non-profits missing out on an opportunity to bring in some much-needed funding by treating small donors as if we don't exist?