Dear Abby: My charity donations unleashed a flood of nonstop fundraising mail

DEAR ABBY: Do charities and nonprofits share or sell donor information? For years, maybe decades, I’ve made quarterly contributions to two well-known charities for children’s cancer research hospitals, and I truly believe in what they do.However, over the last few years, I have started receiving an increasing number of requests for money. One continues to send me quarterly requests, and I promptly write a check.

But the other one started sending mailings every month, then every week and now multiple times a week, not to mention the newer “legacy program” (naming them in my will).I have also received messages on my landline phone, text messages and emails, and none of this contact information has previously been given to them, only my mailing address. Today, I received seven pieces of mail.

Six were requests for donations, five of which I’m not familiar with, and I have gotten the feeling my name and address have been sold or shared with other nonprofits.It feels to me as if they’re spending the money I’ve donated to print and mail even more requests, and I’ll no longer donate to them.

I will increase the amount of donations to local school programs. Is there a way to get them to stop mailing me? Maybe they’ll read this and think twice about bombarding people to the point they no longer will support them.— FULL MAILBOX IN CALIFORNIADEAR FULL MAILBOX: According to Give.org, businesses and charitable organizations do sell their clients’ or donors’ contact information to other organizations.

If your name is on a list of subscribers to a special interest magazine or buyers of a certain product or service, it may wind up on a list used by various charities.You may be able to lessen the onslaught of appeals you receive by writing directly to the charities whose mail you don’t want and asking them to delete your name from the mailing lists they rent or exchange.(A Better Business Bureau standard requires that a charity offer contributors an...