Conundrums

One of the organizations I support every month does a lot of prolife work. I love that they seem very focused on helping women. They help with housing, medical care, baby items, job placement, skills training, etc. And they continue to help after the babies are born. I love this about them.

As with any charitable organization, they're not shy about tooting their own horn in the guise of sharing what they've been doing in order to drum up more donations. (That sounds cynical, but it is what it is, and I get that it's how charities have to operate.)

But this week, one of their Faceplant posts really, REALLY rubbed me the wrong way. They were all "we were contacted by a government organization to help with a car seat fast because none of the local agencies were willing to help" (italics mine.)

And...one, I know the "local agencies" they were talking about were the pregnancy resource centers. Because Mom ran one. And we would occasionally get calls asking for material help like this. And the first several times if we had what they needed on hand, we'd help. But then the agency would just start sending people to us for handouts and...that was not the mission of the PRC. So we put rules in place for how the material goods had to be earned and every so often we would break said rules. And 99% of the time, we would regret having made that choice. Because a PRC isn't set up (and funded!) to be social services for all comers.

So I commented. (Yeah, mistake number one.) And I just said I was disappointed that they didn't take the time to find a way to phrase it where they weren't aiming a bus at people who were in the same trench as them. Because really, they could have said, "We are uniquely situated to respond to circumstances like this and were glad to be able to help. Here's what we did and how you can help us help them."

There was no need--AT ALL--to mention any of the other "local organizations" and why they did or didn't respond.

Of course I got jumped on. Because it's the Internet. And one of the higher ups in the organization said if they didn't mention it then people would be like "Why didn't local agencies help?" And like, to me? The easy thing to say to that is "We don't know. They asked us. We responded."

Again. Just leave other people out of it and talk about yourself.

But the interaction in the comments left me with SUCH a bad taste in my mouth that I'm seriously rethinking giving them any more money. And that hurts my heart. Because I do agree with their mission. And I do love the work they do. But...there are other organizations that have the same mission and do the same work and maybe they do it in a way that's less neener neener and more "Here's what we're doing and we don't care and wont' comment on anyone else."

Or there are other issues I would love to donate to and organizations deserving of my cash. Because the funds to donate are limited and I just don't see that I need to give to an organization that has no issue -- and is in fact pretty defensive about why it was the only way to go -- with punching down to make themselves look better.

But I don't know if that's me being too judgmental/whatever word fits there better.

I just know right now that organization has left a super bad taste in my mouth.