What do people hate about charities? Direct mail appeals from charities they haven't given to. They throw them in the bin. And when they moan to their friends about charity direct mail, their friends agree, because they throw them in the bin as well. Why do charities waste their money sending direct mail appeals when everybody throws them in the bin?

It's a huge issue for charity fundraisers - not talking in response terms, because we know that direct mail appeals work; otherwise we wouldn’t send them, would we?

But the vast majority of people who throw appeals in the bin don't know that they work. All they know is that they throw them in the bin and so do all their friends. This wouldn't matter much if we were selling credit cards, cars or gardening equipment, because the recipients couldn't give a damn if commercial organisations waste money. But they do care, very much, if they think charities are wasting donations.

And that reflects badly on all of us. Despite knowing that our audience think we're wasting money, we keep bombarding them with direct mail appeals because a small percentage of them respond and make it worth our while.

But we don't tell them that.

Perhaps you don't think it's important what non-responders think, as long as the responders make it worthwhile to keep mailing.

But long-term, it does us no favours at all. Those people who throw away our mailings aren't just 'not interested', or 'giving to another charity', or 'haven’t had the right ask yet'. They are beginning to actively distrust us because they believe we are wasting donated money. And they will tell their friends.

Let’s do something about it before it's too late. From now on, let's print something like this on all our recruitment outer envelopes:

ABOUT THIS MAILING: [Charity name] relies on public donations and we use mailings like this to inform people about the work we do, and ask for their support. These appeals are designed as economically as possible. To print and post this to you has cost us XXp and, although not everyone who receives one will respond to it, it is still an extremely cost-effective way of raising funds to help [cause]. In fact, over XX% of our income comes from appeals like this one.

Think it's a dumb idea? Think it's a great idea? Tried it already? Got a question? Let me know - post a comment below.

Nick Couldry