DU has gone too far!

Today I got an unsolicited phone call from Ducks Unlimited asking for money. I have not belonged to DU for over 20 years..ever since the percentage of funds going to DU staffers rather than to the ducks started to rise. DU isn’t as big a rip-off as the Red Cross or Girl Scout cookies yet…but if the money was going to the ducks instead of to some telemarketer I have to believe the resource would be better served. I DO support Waterfowl USA and Wings Over Wisconsin. You can SEE this money at work…and a larger percentage of your dollar goes to the resource. True, DU has done great things for the resource over the years. But make no mistake–this is big business, and a few cats are getting very, very fat off of money that I believe should be going to the ducks. Just logged off the DU website and let them know that i disapprove of this phoning to solicit funds tactic. i believe if you want to give to a cause, any cause…that YOU ought to be the one initiating the donation. Just my 2 cents…but it will be a cold day in the marsh before DU gets another dime or kind word in print out of me!!!

I share your same sentiment about the NRA….and nobody loves to hunt more than me! It’s much easier to support the more local grass-roots groups that, like you say, you can see your dollars at work. Money just has a way of changing people, people that may have the best intentions for the resorce seem to change when they are the one’s handling the money. Unfortunately, most of these groups don’t have to answer to anybody on spending because it’s a “donation” and not tax money. In the end it’s the ducks and people that love waterfowl that pay the ultimate price.

i support ducks unlimited, and will continue to do so. i do beleive that when your a member you never stop getting calls or mailers as though its never enough what you do give. i do understand however that it is big business and thay will continue to do it. i dont disconnect my cable when they call and ask if we want to upgrade my cable pkg. i know a lot of people who use the resource and do not contribute anything to any org. i think this is sad i also have 2 girls 6-11 that deliver and sell every year,i know that a huge portion of the money goes to camping,bowling,horseback rides and other events, they sure enjoy it, and i dont mind getting to hunt or fish a couple xtra hrs per week.

I quit supporting unlimited’s and forever’s when it seemed every periodical related to them had to have a suicide story in it. Keep my dogs after I scatter my brains and blood over this field stories somehow make me want my money back.

Quote:

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DU isn’t as big a rip-off as the Red Cross or Girl Scout cookies yet…

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Kind of painting with a broad brush here, huh Ted?
If you are going to make a statement like this, back them up with some facts please. DU, Girl Scouts, and the Red Cross probably have facts on what they spend money on. Certain percentages of gross income are perfectly acceptable for operating expenses and salaries. Let’s see what ya got!

Just a tad over the top??

c/p from DU website
Year in and year out, DU strives to spend 80 percent of its revenue directly on conservation. Only four percent goes to administration. DU’s management meets all of the standards of the American Institute of Philanthropy and other analysts of non-profit organizations. Copies of these reports are available via request from Ducks Unlimited.

financial report

BIRDDOG

Hey ted lighten up they are on our side. who you going after next? the NRA??????? FROM OUR STONE COLD DEAD HANDS!!
in this day with peta growing the sportsman needs all the advocates it can get. stick with pounding the DNR. were still waiting for all your facts on that issue.

Hope you feel better keeping your box of Hevi Shot, I mean the $25. I would hazard a bet the conservation groups you belong to sold or traded your name to DU, don’t know, but a guess.

As for the “fat cats”, call Sandi Beitzel in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, your national VP and ask how it works. If you DIDN’T know, the VP’s PAY FOR THE PRIVILEDGE of working for us. They pay for every ticket, trip, crappy $30 lunch, EVERYTHING. I’ll bet it costs her and the rest over 10k a year personally for the priviledge of service. DU is SO sensitive to these types of costs it keeps a lot of good people from even considering going to that level of involvement.

There’s simply no practical way to run an organization as large as DU WITHOUT a multitude of fundraising and solicitation efforts. To NOT do what they do would be wrong.

You’re right I’m typing loud. I’m in a town of 4,000 people in Nebraska and we raise about $15,000 a year and we don’t have duck hunting to speak of without driving 2-3 hours in any direction. I’m pretty proud of our little club, the years I’ve put in, and I’m prouder of my dad for making me a Greenwing when I was about 5. Maybe it was helping net and band waterfowl as a kid and all the fun trips I’ve had, but to know that a duck or goose can go from the Tundra to the Tropics and my little bit of $$ and a few goose nest or wood duck boxes now and then helps do that in this modern world helps me sleep a little better and feel a little more respectful about the few waterfowl I do shoot.

All conservation organizations have their niche, DU fills a whole continent. Not everyone can be happy, and I’m certainly not in lock step with every policy, duck count or governance method they use.

But I get my $25 back no problem.

Todd Consbruck
Nebraska

I CAN UNDERSTAND ABOUT TELE MARKETING AND THE CERTAIN PEOPLE WHO PROFIT FROM MY “DONATIONS AND CONTRIBUTIONS” AND THAT PART OF IT IRRITATES THE HECK OUT OF ME ALSO. BUT IF EVERYONE KEEPS THEIR DIMES AND KIND WORDS TO THEM SELFS , THEN WE WON’T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT NEXT HUNTING SEASON, OR ABOUT ME SHOOTING CLAYS WITH MY SON, OR FISHING ON THE RIVER . WE’LL ALL BE WATCHING PUBLIC TELEVISION ON A DOCUMENTARY ON THE LIFE CYCLE OF A COOT AND EATING A TOFU BURGER. I WOULD MUCH RATHER SEE $.50 OF MY DOLLAR HELPING THE THINGS I LIVE FOR, AND KNOW THAT I AM DOING WHAT I CAN FOR THOSE THINGS UNTIL I FIND A BETTER WAY TO GO. I AM A WORKING MEMBER OF DU AND PHEASANTS FOREVER , AND CONTRIBUTING DONOR TO WATERFOWL USA AND TURKEY FED., AND I SEE ALOT OF THE NEGATIVE, BUT DON’T LET THEM CLOUD YOUR JUDGEMENT, WITHOUT THEM WE ALL LOOSE.

Very well stated Todd_NE

I share your dislike for the telemarketing telephone calls, if fact I can’t think of anyone who sits by the phone waiting for them, but that’s not the key issue here. DU has done more to protect our ability to go out and hunt ducks and geese,than our duly elected officals on protecting our senior citizens. There is nothing better than hunting with your children or watching a well trained dog retrieve a crafty mallard.
Without DU I doubt you would see the numbers of birds on the flyways that are availabe to hunt. The improved nesting areas in the plains and Canada, plus the areas bought and improved with members money and donations of private citizens have done this. Most of the people who are running this program spend their own money to travel, eat, and solicit prizes for the yearly local programs for give aways or raffles. Money is needed to purchase land almost everywhere in this Country and Canada, plus pay people to dike, and plant it with water fowl food items. Enough said, the choice is a personal thing to either belong or not belong. Something to think about the next time you pull up to shoot a duck.
If we need to question a operation, maybe it should be the Social Security system, which makes many senior citizens choose between buying food or medicine on a monthly basis. Perhaps if the fat cats in Washington were on the same retirement system our senior citizens wouldn’t have to choose between food and medicine. No telemarketing calls from these people, they just take the money out of your check on a regular basis. Sorry got carried away!

While Ducks Unlimited is a sort of nation wide thing, Wisconsin Waterfowl Association keeps ALL money in Wisconsin.

http://www.wisducks.org/

I think they must be buying up magazine prescription mailing list as I have never been a member yet I have received by mail several times over the past couple years letters asking for money. In fact I’ve never belonged to any hunting group. The only hunting I do is hunting for fish. My guess is thats how they got your name and address Ted as 20 years ago is wayyyyyy to far back for any group to keep a name and address.
Thanks, Bill

While everyone is entitled to their opinions, I would say you stepped in it on this one Ted.

I too will agree that telemarketers are scum, but DU is a good organization.

Sandi Beitzel is my sister through marriage. I’ve seen firsthand how hard Jim and Sandi work for DU (for nothing). You may not know it but Sandi voted the Budweiser Outdoorsman of the Year (they may have to change the name to be politically correct) in 2003. YOU DON’T GET THAT TITLE BY BEING A FAT CAT! Sandi was the WI State Ladies Chair of DU at the time and was involved in seven other conservation groups at the time. Her reward was $50,000 in grants from Budweiser to go to programs of Sandi’s choice.
Fat Cat….No way!

John

I am pretty sure mailing lists can be purchased from the state from your hunting license information.

Small world, Tell Sandi the big guy that works for the same Sisters she does says hi! Now I’m hungry for donuts and perch in their back lawn.

I can’t say I got over a few thousand people to help vote for that Bud deal… lol

Todd

Folks like Sandi are to be commended for the hard work they do for our natural resources. I applaud the passion of IDAers in addressing this thread!
As stated in my initial post having DU stoop to telemarketing burned me up. I would rather they had sent this money to the ducks rather than to somebody making unsolicited phone calls.
DU has probably done more than any other conservation organization for our natural resources over the years. I can remember walking a mile across marsh and field in Saskatchewan back in ’79 towards a huge stone obelisk that seemed quite out of place. It marked the Ding Darling project. Still gives me chills thinking about it.
Every natural resource organization has merit. Some more than others. But people who are the core of each one of these entities from DU to PF, NRA, WOW,WU, QU and WUSA have key people who give heart and soul to their favorite cause.
Herein lies the rub: Where do you get the most ‘bang for the buck’? When it comes to philanthropy there is only so much money in the kitty. Charity begins in the home…and if ya can’t pay the rent, ya gotta move out in a tent.
My limited funds go primarily to Friends of NRA, Pheasants Forever, Wings Over Wisconsin and Waterfowl USA. My money. My choice.
In the past I’ve been on several local DU committees and helped start two chapters. Since then I’ve moved on–my perception of ‘bang for the buck’ dontcha know.
It saddens me to see DU resort to telemarketing. Because of this uninvited ploy DU has moved a notch or two lower for the time/money I can afford to give away.
Back in ’93 or ’94 I donated 13 days guiding for various causes. People from every one of ’em believed theirs was the most important.
That was 13 days I lost money instead of making any. If I was independently wealthy I might still donate that time. But I’m not. So now I donate three days guiding per year. That’s it. And no organization gets a freebie two years in a row.
I believe its important to give to causes we believe in. As a Christian, the first check I write every month is a tithe. After the bills are paid a good chunk of remaining resources go toward protecting the right to keep and bear arms and toward our natural resources…and the 2 cents here for you IDAers. 45 viewing this forum when I logged on. Don’t you wusses fish anymore?

Ted:

Good to see you came around some on this issue. I respect your viewpoints and telemarketing is one of my pet peeves. Somebody previously stated that DU’s goal is an 80% return on every dollar to the ducks. I just attended a volunteer banquet last Saturday and that goal is being exceeded by 7% in Wisconsin. I believe overall in 2005, DU donations were down in WI, probably due to an uncertain economic outlook more than anything. So they resorted to telemarketing as an idea to boost donations. A mistake,… maybe, but they are trying and fighting the good fight. I’ve recently been the Area Chairman for Hudson DU and from what I’ve seen, it’s a good organization!!

Eric

As stated in my first post, I emailed the DU website to tell them I did not want to be pestered by phone. Given your position in DU perhaps you could relay that there has gotta be a better way than unsolicited phone calls to generate funds/interest?????

That always sounds nice that Wisconsin keeps your dollar for ducks in the state and Iowa keeps my dollar in Iowa. But lets face the facts without the prairie pothole region of Canada and the US portion in North and South Dakota and Montana none of us are going to have a very succesful season. We need orgs. like DU and Delta to get the international thing done.

It’s all numbers. If you can hire a telemarketer, for $7 an hour, and they work 8 hrs, it costs $56. If that marketer brings in $500 in their shift, thats a pretty good percentage. If telemarketing didn’t work, they wouldn’t do it. I would have more time for a DU tele, than a Credit Carder.

big g

exactly not to count the money pulled
in from people who don’t have a vested intrest in DU.
i bet they make a heck of alot more then they pay to for telemarketing. and i would bet the numbers are public
some where. BIG G you got it right. hey Ted they could have
tried selling you aluminum siding. i would hate to see how p.o. you would have got then.

I have a brother who complains about most every outdoor hunting/gun organization and their efforts to raise money for the cause, yet he hunts everything – all the time. Now he’s trying to involve his little kid. He neither belongs to nor contributes to ANYTHING!
It took me many years, but I finally started hunting outside MN/USA 4 years ago. Duck and goose hunting Manitoba mostly. Once I crossed the border, I absolutely could not believe all the DU posted land I found, both owned by DU and co-sponsored with landowners – all of which – I have access to. After many many years of hunting in MN/USA and contributing to DU, I finally got to see where all my money has gone. DU posted land everywhere! Personally, I think it’s absolutely great. Now I belong to both DU/USA AND DU/Canada. When I schedule my hunting trips there, I always try and hit a DU banquet too. None of this could be accomplished without lots of money. I can’t contribute every time in every case, but I do what I can. Today, when I go on a hunt and shoot even one bird, I know that “I” have at least tried to do something to preserve my ability to be out there, be hunting and see/shoot some birds. Take 20% for admin fees! 80% is better than nothing.
My brother,…. well,…. he still just complains about no ducks – and hunts – and takes what he can.
Splitshot.