Letters to the Editor

In my heart I'm a person who is better able to express herself in the written word than by the spoken word. I've often written letters to the editor of my local newspaper and had the odd one printed. The one that will be printed next is about MADD.

A few years back my sister and I thought that MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers) would be a worthy charity to offer our volunteer services. We did this for about 2 years and then, at one of the meetings, were told by our speaker that a private source was going to place kiosks for donations to MADD at various locations. She went on to explain that the private source would keep 80% of the donations for their administration costs and MADD would receive the remaining 20%. My sister and I were so disgusted that we terminated our volunteer services that same day and I have refused to donate a penny to MADD since then.

Apparently the MADD executives are in dire straits these days and the organization is falling apart. What a shame that such a good cause should be jeopardized by poor leadership.

My advice to anyone donating their time or money to any charity is to find out what percentage of the money received is eaten up by administration. If that amount exceeds 20% it might be wise to choose another charity. I've written about "Kid's World" in Kissimmee and their administration cost 3 years ago (sorry, I'm not more up to date on that) was 7%. I once asked a telephone fund raiser the percentage that went to administration and he was highly offended, saying he couldn't possibly give me that information. I hung up.