And The Award For Tackiest Fundraising Message of 2009 Goes To…

December 30, 2009May 4, 2018 by David A.M. Wilensky

…the Jewish Telegraph Agency.
I guess this is a follow-up of sorts to KFJ’s recent post here at Jewschool, Shooting the Jewish Press.
Today’s JTA Daily Briefing included the following language, which you had to scroll through to get to their actual content:

Noah would be disappointed.
We hoped for a flood, we got a shpritz. To the hundreds who’ve donated to JTA, we pledge to put your generous gifts to good use. To those who haven’t yet — yours, too. Please donate now.

Excuse us for not recognizing your right to exist.
To top it all off, they included this insane graphic:

7 thoughts on “And The Award For Tackiest Fundraising Message of 2009 Goes To…”

Z. P. Guitar says:

December 30, 2009 at 4:12 pm

They should have just gone with this — http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/natlampoon.jpg

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David A.M. Wilensky says:

December 30, 2009 at 4:22 pm

Z.P., word! Haha.

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dcc says:

December 31, 2009 at 3:26 pm

This just in from JTA:

Donations to JTA have been pouring in this week from places as diverse as Pittsburgh and Panama. Some are large, some are small. We are grateful for each and every one.
In an uncertain time for journalism, it is really gratifying to know that the community stands behind JTA, the global news service of the Jewish People.
We received an e-mail overnight from a contributor who wrote:

Tzedakah is not charity – it’s doing justice in the world. And JTA, through its coverage, makes its readers aware of people and their plights, as well as organizations where their dollars can begin to do right.

You make that work possible. So as 2009 draws to a close, we want to thank you, deeply and sincerely, for your support.
With best wishes for the new year.

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David A.M. Wilensky says:

December 31, 2009 at 8:48 pm

Just saw that, dcc. It’s kind of a two-headed fundraising monster. That one is perfectly normal whereas the one that prompted this post was so tacky.

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BZ says:

December 31, 2009 at 9:47 pm

The use of “shpritz” ties into Jay Michaelson‘s point:
“Meaningful authenticity isn’t about … a Yiddish pun (please, enough with cutesy invocations of ‘gelt’ and ‘schlep’).”

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Siviyo says:

January 2, 2010 at 7:50 pm

I think it’s cute. Tough crowd.

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Kung Fu Jew says:

January 4, 2010 at 12:12 pm

Fundraising meter bars might be on the way out. They’ve been standard web practice for many fundraising causes (because you do need to explain your goal and your progress to build your case) but there’s few ways to make them graphically appealing. I wouldn’t say it’s overly tacky in the JTA’s emails.
I do however find it tacky that JTA sent a fundraising email every day for four days. Dude, if I don’t give the first (hell, second) time, then I ain’t givin’. Even Ari Wallach’s friendly visage promising me that the JTA “isn’t about partisan politics…it’s about an informed debate.” The message was lovely and I do hope his new membership on their board of directors spells some hopeful balance in their coverage. (Not likely, that’s not what the board of directors does.) But when I read it, my first reaction was a grimace of disappointment at their cynicism. If JTA specifically was about informed debate, I wouldn’t be barking about their bias every day.

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