donate to EDF?
Posted by fotobill3  |  August 26, 2009 6:04:03 AM

EDF does good work, but with a budget in the tens of millions and a CEO salary of $400K+, my little contributions are hardly noticed.

I'll stay a member at a low level, and give more to smaller, more cost-effective orgs.

My favorite is the Center for Biological Diversity. I don't know why I only discovered them a few years ago, but maybe it's because they don't do many fund-raising mailers. CBD doesn't take credit for the work of others, b/c they have plenty to cite of their own work.

No 6-figure salaries, no fancy offices, no freebies like calendars, just cost-effective work (mostly litigation, it seems) for the environment, esp wildlife. I even made CBD the main beneficiary in my estate. Check 'em out.

Mail problems and transparency
Posted by John43085  |  July 8, 2009 10:27:29 AM

Ronsan and SamBisquit comments about duplicate mailings do indicate a sloppy donor communication system. The $403K salary clearly shows Mr. Krupp living abovt the 250K magic line. Finally, DrVeri appears to have considerable knowledge of EDF internal operations. Is DrVeri an EDF employee trying to offset the negative comments by Ronsan and SamBisquit? I am like Ronsan in that I believe in the EDF cause and I give my money to other charities.

I don't think so...
Posted by DrVeri  |  May 19, 2009 5:43:46 AM

EDF doesn't do alot of mass mailings, not since I first became a member back in 1978. They have never harassed me by mail. EDF gives the option to receive mail electronically, which must be done by registering your email. You can also "opt out" of snail mail (which I have done this year as I'm traveling alot). Never got anything from them since then. They also have never sold my name, that would be absurd since who would want to compete with a bunch of other charities for your "dime"? They respect your privacy, I've never had any trouble with my name being "sold" since 1978. As far as Mr. Krupp's compensation, it's my understanding that he's not paid from donations. I also understand that "Frances" at NRDC makes about $300,000+ a year. It depends how big the organization is (people under 100k are working for much smaller orgs) as well as performance. EDF has made headway with laws that no one else could. They also produce most of the commercials you see on TV, and buy ads from major media (like the Wall Street Journal). We have won (and saved the environment) many times over with these methods. I doubt VERY seriously that the other 2(?) commentors have experience with EDF. Their posts look almost identical. I have experience with many orgs over my young 50 years, and I'm pleased with what EDF has accomplished. EDF, NRDC, and Union of Concerned Scientists all get my vote of confidence for their successful victories. THAT is what counts for me.

Duplicate Mailings, excessive compensation
Posted by SamBisquit  |  April 27, 2009 5:53:33 AM

I have started getting duplicate mailings from this organization with identical address information, so they must either be using different mass mailing companies, or are using a very sloppy system for their mailings. Couple this with Fred Krupp's $403,092 annual compensation and I have decided to focus my support on more efficiently run organizations.

They seem to have sold my information
Posted by Ronsan  |  March 6, 2009 11:36:16 AM

I gave a very nominal amount of money to EDF and, now, I'm getting mail from dozens of similar charities all begging for money. I'm pretty sure it's EDF that did this since all the mailings have the same address mistake as the address EDF uses.

In addition to selling my name and address, I also get repeated mailings from EDF, at least 2 a month. I really have to ask, how much is all that costing?

I know I didn't give them more than $25 and I'm sure they've spent all that on these mailings. In this day and age I just toss them in the trash. A waste, really. A waste of money, trees and energy. Such overuse of direct mail seems contrary to their cause, frankly.

I strongly suspect not a dime of the money I donated went to the cause. How could it? I know direct mail is cheap, but it's not that cheap.

This is very sad. I believe in the EDF cause, but there are other charities I can give to that do the same kind of work.