Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to hate being bothered by charity people!!?

78 replies

plasticface · 25/02/2011 16:05

I'm sure this is a much discussed topic but it really pisses me off!
Charity mugger just knocked on my door and "chatted" with me for bloody ages about a charity. I had just got dd to sleep made a cup of tea and settled down with a piece if cake and mn....dd woke up and my tea is less than boiling hot!
Now I'm left with an awake baby, not hot tea and feeling a bit guilty even though I already donate to 2 charities every month, (off my own back) and annoyed!!!
I hate them even more in the street, I would like to be able to relax when I'm walking through town without having to avoid bloody drama students running over to me with an overly sincere grin on their face asking for a "chat".
AAAAAghghhhghghghghg

OP posts:
mrscynical · 26/02/2011 10:04

I usually tell the chuggers to look on the MoneySavingExpert threads where ex-chuggers have spilled the beans on the 'private' companies that employ them. The chuggers (young, bright people who cannot find jobs at the moment) are being ripped off as well as the punters by being promised lucrative jobs in marketing and sales.

Roughly speaking the first £100 you pay to the 'charity' is in fact lining the pockets of the directors of the private company. If you cancel your direct debit at about this financial point you have actually not given one penny to the charity at all, merely made some private company director richer. The chugger has made a pitiful commission from that £100 (if the company pay him/her at all) as one of the earlier posters has discovered.

Please remember that most charities exist to pay their directors fantastic salaries. I have had many dealing with charities throughout my career and I can honestly tell you that you are merely playing into the guilt trip they create as well as funding already rich companies (for that is actually what many of them are) and helping keep certain people very well off.

If you want to help out why not offer your time or support a local, small, accountable charity where you can see the work being done.

TheMonster · 26/02/2011 10:08

A chugger signing people up to donate to Shelter stopped me yesterday. I said 'when I have a safe, permanent home I shall think about helping other homeless people'. He still kept going as I walked off.

FooffyShmoofffer · 26/02/2011 10:09

My attitude was changed massively when I found out that they are outsourced form another company work for them for three months then move on to work for another.

Maybe it makes me incredibly naive to think these people were in any way emotionally invested but to find out it's all a script learnt by rote has removed a massive amount of guilt from my shoulders.

I give by D/D to two charities for personal reasons. That should be well enough I think.

An NSPCC chugger made me cry a few months ago. Presumably thinking that since I had an 8 yr old with me and a 2 year old in a pram that if she was as explicit in her details of abuse as possible I would hand over my bank details like a shot.

End result, I got upset and my sensitive 8 year old was also upset and left with mental images he didn't need to know.

So YANBU. At all.

seanbonbon · 26/02/2011 10:18

I find smiling and saying "I don't want to waste your time" lets them know that they are flogging a dead horse and works most of the time.

No need to be rude although the persistant ones can be annoying.

PigValentine · 26/02/2011 10:24

most charities exist to pay their directors fantastic salaries No. This isn't true a all. If you look on Third Sector Jobs, or charity jobs.co.uk you will see that even the most senior director or Chief Exec will get paid a fraction of what a comparable role in the private, indeed public secot would earn. Even at my level - as a funraising manager I am paid £26k pro-rata and have to bring in approx £350,000 a year, assisted by a part time junior fundraiser and an intern. If I had a sales target that large, I'm sure I would be earning much more money.

Most charities use some form of face to face fundraising because, although there may be a commission payable in the first year, the average lifetime value of a donor signed up through face to face recruitment makes it worthwhile.

I can understand that some people do not like being approached in the street or at home - and by the way, if you get door knocked despite displaying a "no cold callers" notice, you should complain to the PFRA www.pfra.org.uk/( for anyone interested as to why charities use face to face recruitment, this website would be of interest) as there are strict regulations in place. However, I don't understand this attitude, seemingly endemic in our society, that charities shouldn't ask for money, that it is somehow wrong - we'd all notice the massive absence in services and support if charities did not exist.

FooffyShmoofffer · 26/02/2011 10:55

There is nothing whatsoever wrong with Charities asking for money and donations but when their methods of doing this become questionable, then it becomes an issue. I have found them more aggressively like sales people as time has gone on.

roses2 · 26/02/2011 11:04

Don't these people get something like £75 commission per person they sign up?

DaisyDaresYOU · 26/02/2011 11:05

Oh I hate it when you get hassled in the street.I got stopped by a make up lady in Bristol,she offered free make up so stupid me stopped.She talked and talked and talked when she finished she said you can get all of this for £30.Grrr I wasted half an hour of my life and my families

myboobsrock · 26/02/2011 11:09

Well said PigValentine. I am a charity fundraiser too - although not a street fundraiser - and I am not ashamed ever to ask people for money as it is literally in the case of my charity saving people's lives. Anyone who objects to being asked for money to help other living beings should really take a look at themselves.

cocoachannel · 26/02/2011 11:17

I work for a health charity (relatively well-known, but not a TV advertiser, 'mid-tier' may be a good description), and whilst I agree that charities must get out and ask for money I think knocking on people's doors in the evenings or early on weekend mornings is just not on.

Nor is harrassing people on the street, commenting on their choices as on the M&S example, or telling stories in front of children as in the NSPCC anecdote above (I'd definitely complain about that one to their Head Office btw- charities will act on these complaints).

Yes, it's a difficult time- particularly for those trying to attract DD givers- but the challenge is in finding new, imaginative ways to attract support.

cocoachannel · 26/02/2011 11:22

ps. the comment re. Directors salaries is ludicrous- I font regret it as I much prefer my current job, but I halved my salary moving to the charity sector from a public sector role, and at the same time going from a manager role to Head of Dept.

cocoachannel · 26/02/2011 11:24

font = don't, and apologies for other errors. Typing on phone between contractions! Any distraction!

FooffyShmoofffer · 26/02/2011 11:55

myboobsrock It would take a hard hearted person to object to being asked for money for charity.

However, it is the any means necessary approach that many people object to.

FooffyShmoofffer · 26/02/2011 11:57

cocoa How exciting. Hope it happens quickly for youSmile

mowbraygirl · 26/02/2011 14:20

The other day we had someone from the Red Cross knock for once DH answered the door. She went on and on about getting together with the neighbours and all putting in an amount each month etc. she said that the first 4 houses in our street she had knocked on were more than willing to do it. DH said to her even No 3 oh yes well said DH was it a message from above as the owner of the house has sadly died and we went to th funeral the other day. Needless to say she went rather quickly after that.

jasminetom · 26/02/2011 16:41

I don't mind genuine charity people asking for money, even if they knock on my door. I don't even mind if they work for the charity and get paid for it, it would be unrealistic to expect a charity to succeed if stafed entirely by volunteers. It's just those wholesome bloody teenagers pretending they are the salt of the earth when really they may as likely have found a job hassling people to watch the Vanish stain remover in the middle of a shopping mall. I don't even mind if directors get a good salary, if they are good the charity will make more. It's just those bouncy idiots....

forehead · 26/02/2011 16:41

In response to your question OP. Not if they look like the gorgeous French chap who signed me up to Red Cross. My dh reckons they are now employing good looking male chuggers to get 'mugs' like me to donate.

PepsiPopcorn · 26/02/2011 17:21

If they are straightforward "I'm from X, would you like to make a donation please?" or "I'm collecting the charity envelopes from Y" then fair enough.

It's the wily ones I don't like, the ones that don't get to the point.

emptyshell · 26/02/2011 17:40

Notice on the door - if they don't read that and try the "SO YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT X/Y/Z" shout to embarass me in front of the neighbours (who know me better than that)... I just reply "nope" and shut the door (doesn't have to be the truth or anything - but it's enough to deflate their bluster long enough for me to make my exit). I also quite often look through the window (I don't give a stuff if they see me to be honest) and if they're wearing a tabard and holding a clipboard I just don't answer the door.

I will never ever give to a charity that employs chuggers - I really resent being disturbed at home. Same for doorstep sales... if I want to buy something - I come to you - now chuff off and leave me alone!

Can't remember who made the M+S bag comment but I actually complained in writing to a charity (I won't name them because they did reply politely to the complaint) about their chuggers doing very similar tactics - shouting at the female passers by "Oh I can see a lady like you spends a lot of her fashion... how about giving a little to x?!" They weren't commenting on the men's appearance or spending - so I got mildly irked!

Particular mention to the RSPCA (whom I won't give to anyway) who tried the embarass me in front of the neighbours by shouting that I didn't care about injured animals routine... just as the three-legged cat came to see who was at the door with her stage limp in full effect in the hope it was someone gullible who was going to cuddle her. Nah don't care at all - look at the wonky moggie with a shining coat! Perfect timing by the moggy and one collector slinking away with her tail between her legs.

No one's business but my own what charities I give to - least of all some student with a clipboard who doesn't care about the cause they're collecting for that day anyway.

Original poster
plasticface · 26/02/2011 17:49

Flisspaps I think they were in green, Save the Children I think, he kept referring to the fact I am a mother to try and guilt trip me into signing up.

I think I might say I am bankrupt next time and in need of charity assistance.

OP posts:
Original poster
plasticface · 26/02/2011 17:52

I don't ever mean to be rude to them on the street, I just get so annoyed, and when I have ever politely said "No thanks" they carry on pestering me!

OP posts:
kaid100 · 26/02/2011 18:22

I've taken to saying "I prefer to give directly to charities rather than through profit-making companies. Goodbye."

xstitch · 26/02/2011 18:47

YANBU, it has been getting me really down lately and the sponsorship adverts on TV. They make me feel really guilty and personally responsible for all the suffering in the world. It not that I don't want to help charities its just I can't give them what I don't have.

A chugger once followed me up the street asking very loudly 'Why do you want these children to suffer' I ended up sobbing in the street trying to make sure everyone knew I didn't want them to suffer but I have no money and the only thing left to give is food for my dd. I still feel really guilty.

LadyOfTheManor · 26/02/2011 18:50

Some idiot knocked on my door. I opened it to see some moron in a "Save the Children" vest. I told her that my ds was in bed and she shouldn't cold call out of the hours of 9am and 5pm and definitely not on a weekend.

She mythered me about children blah blah.

I asked her how much her CEO gets paid.

She didn't know.

I told her to let me know when she finds out, and how much of my £1 would line his pocket, and if she found out and came back, I'd give her whatever was in my purse.

Haven't seen her since.

pantaloons · 26/02/2011 20:00

myboobsrock I am not the person you make me out to be, I just object to being constantly stopped in the street when out shopping. I give to the charities I choose, not to those with pester power and have my own personal reasons for my choices. I'm sure you are aware from your work that nobody goes through life untouched by sadness or tragedy, and people probably choose to give to charities relevant to their personal life and experiences, rather than a pushy student on the High Street.