Passing the hat for coworkers

I'm sick of donating to every frigging charity, event, person, and idea that goes through my office. Every time somebody's family member croaks, they pass the hat. Ok, fine. Maybe money helps a grieving person. When somebody retires, they pass the hat. Fine, let's pitch in to get them a gift. I usually donate if I know (and like) the person, and if not, I don't give. Now that I'm in a new office space, everybody has that "happy family" mentality and the hat gets passed for everything. Somebody has family members in Iraq, so the hat got passed at Christmas time. I felt bad for not donating to that one, because I like to support the military when I can, but that one came and went without me having cash on hand.

But now, one of the women in the office is leaving because she accepted a position for the government. She'll still work in the building, but now it'll be for the Navy instead of for us. Pay raise of course. So why are we passing the fucking hat? She just accepted a higher paying job. Everybody is going out to lunch at the shittiest chinese buffet in Pittsfield, and I'm not going. (I ordered Tahiti Takeout instead!) Explain why I need to pay? I got cornered by my boss and had to cough up $2.

I don't want people passing the hat for me, and when my grandmothers died, I specifically kept my mouth shut so that people didn't know, and I asked my managers not to say anything and not to pass the hat or a sympathy card. I want my business private. I guess that's why I don't want to give every time they pass the hat for somebody else.