Joy to the world! It is the season of giving. And a spammer has decided to give their vast expertise to 25 charities so that they can learn how to spam too.

Please rank these in order of irritation factor.

• Telemarketing
• Spam
• Broadcast commercials
• Junk mail

Spam is in your top four right? So if a spammer says they will help a charity spam you is that really spam?

Nashville e-mail marketing and communications company, Emma, is giving free accounts, custom-designed html template designs and complimentary service to 25 charitable groups around the world.

In its fourth year, the Emma 25 initiative allows customers to nominate their favorite and most deserving charities, and the staff selects 25.

As far as effectiveness, would you donate money to a charity that spammed you? Here’s the way I look at it: first it probably won’t get by my spam filters, second, I wouldn’t click on it to open it, third, if they tricked me into opening the email I wouldn’t trust that it was really from the charity.

In its fourth year, we hope that giving away free accounts through Emma 25 makes it easier for deserving charities to get the word out about what they’re doing, stay in touch with donors, organize events and do even more great work.

Wonder what the real world fee is for this kind of service?

Bah, humbug.