Managing Donation Asks

My firm has lately started seriously amping up the pressure to donate, to what I feel to be an egregious degree and I’m no longer sure how to handle it and would like to hear how others are managing similar situations.

For context, I am a first year Associate in S&T, Capital Markets who just got out of student debt this year (!) and has been trying to build an emergency fund/retirement fund etc. I still give back a significant amount financially and as a volunteer, recognizing how important it is to help others who are in need. I have my own charitable giving budget that aligns with what I can give, sometimes is a bit more tbh, and support charities whose work I support and am really careful about where I donate (eg. fuck virtue signalling - I refuse to support causes publicly unless it genuinely will help the charity).

I am normally good at redirecting asks, but things have gotten ridiculous since going back to the office in person. I’ve got more than 6 different asks on my desk from different colleagues, all of which are for sizeable donations ($200+ asks each) that have been made in the last 4 weeks. There was another rash of similar donation requests earlier this year that was just as intense but easier to manage as it was not in person.

The last straw has been an “invite” to an MD’s “optional” fundraising dinner. This MD took the time to sit down with each junior individually and emphasize “the importance of attending and giving as generously as you can” and how it looks really bad to not participate as a junior “given that we are so disproportionately blessed - but no pressure, individually up to everyone based on their availability”. I got a mass email just now from another MD/Head for this event saying that “anyone who opts out is forgiven only so long as they make a sizeable “important giver” level ($1000+) donation if they cannot attend the dinner in person.”

Also just learned that they’re starting to roll out networking opportunities but only for juniors who are willing to provide proof of $200 minimum donations to United Way a pop, not a charity on my list I support given their enormous funding reserves.

I don’t need to attend these technically, but it is beginning to worry me that this trend only continues to grow and seems to become a losers game - they have also announced you are meant to provide all donations through the employer-tracked platform so they can monitor employee giving. Which just feels controlling, wrong, and annoyingly limits the charities I can donate to. I am genuinely unsure what to do : either get sideline for not being a team player, or b) seriously detracting from my nest egg by budget for 5-10k$ annually post tax in donations to charities I do not want to support in lieu of those I do…

To anyone else out there fielding asks for literally thousands of dollars, seemingly every month, how are you managing them without being labelled “not a team player” or getting penalized ?

Also, I checked and this is all legal in my country, if in really bad taste.