Address Labels

My mom gets TONS of address labels in the mail (I'm house-sitting - I'm allowed to go through her mail). You know, the free ones sent by charities to try to get you to donate money. When I got the mail today, naturally there was another thick envelope for my mom full of address labels. I opened them up and threw them in the growing stack of address labels that have been building up while my parents are gone. I don't usually pay that much attention since it's such a frequent occurrence, but as I threw them in the stack, I noticed that these address labels were from the March of Dimes. I thought to myself, "I thought they just got some from the March of Dimes." So, I checked through the stack and, sure enough, near the top was another set of labels from the March of Dimes. So, I looked through the stack a little more and realized that my mom gets a set of address labels from the March of Dimes every month. Not a big deal, you say? I counted the address labels on the most recent set. 74 labels. The March of Dimes thinks my mom is going to mail 74 letters a month? Now, I'm not trying to singe out the March of Dimes - it just happened to be the charity that I noticed. This scenario is repeated with several other charities as well. I'm also not trying to diminish the convenience of address labels - they're awesome. I use my mom's frequently and just cross out her name (yep - you remember my Christmas card). But, 74 labels per month? That's 888 per year. Who sends that much mail? Now add to that the labels she and my dad get from other charities and my parents receive several thousand address labels in the span of about a year. Maybe that money could be used more wisely. It would be comforting to know that as much of your donation as possible is actually being used for the cause to which you are contributing instead of for their marketing and solicitation materials. Just a thought. Call me crazy.