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I raised a significant sum of money for charity. Whilst my work was not directly involved, they were aware of it and actually supported me throughout it, in the form of donations, letting me host cake sales, etc.

The charity now want to run a feature on me in their newsletter - I know that there are many that would love this, but I am incredibly shy and private about this sort of stuff. I know my employers would love it too as it would mean good publicity for them i.e. Sally who works at XYZ raised over £5000 for this charity.

How can I politely decline, without causing offence?

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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it not a question about navigating the workplace as defined in the help center.
    – David K
    Commented Jun 12, 2018 at 13:47
  • 1
    This question might be better suited at Interpersonal Skills.
    – David K
    Commented Jun 12, 2018 at 13:47
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    @DavidK since this also involves potential benefit to her employer, and lack thereof if she declines, I think this is absolutely a workplace related question
    – Old_Lamplighter
    Commented Jun 12, 2018 at 14:23
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    @Crossedtheriverstyx I guess it depends on who she is worried about causing offense to. I interpreted the question as preventing offense to the charity, which would be off-topic. If she's worried about her employer being offended by her refusal, that could be on-topic.
    – David K
    Commented Jun 12, 2018 at 14:41

2 Answers 2

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How can I politely decline, without causing offence?

How about,

No, thanks. I did the work to support the charity and am not comfortable with the personal attention.

As an alternative, you could offer them,

How about you write the piece but use a pseudonym instead of my real name? That lets you point out that there was an individual in the community who did the fundraising and helped the charity, but it avoids the personal attention I don't feel comfortable with.

This way, you get what you want (no attention) and the charity gets what they want (a feature piece in their newsletter). You could even offer to have them name your employer, but not specifically yourself. Then, your employer gets the attention they want, too:

My employer, company XYZ, contributed greatly to my fundraising efforts - I'm sure they would be happy to be featured in your newsletter, in terms of supporting the project I was involved in.

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First off, I would advise against declining, as being able to point to a favorable piece of publicity is always a plus, and since it would also benefit your company with good press, declining could be a career limiting move, even if done politely.

That said, if you must decline, do it thusly.

Thank you so much for wanting to feature me in your newsletter. I'm afraid, due to personal reasons, I would rather not have my name mentioned. However, my company put in a good deal of effort and they would certainly benefit from a kind word. If you could omit my name and instead, say that and employee from XYZ company did this instead, I would very much appreciate it.

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