To be pissed off about being put on the spot for charity donation?!

[PossetFeatures]

Aware I maybe being a miserable tight arse today but hey ho...

Was in well known high street clothes shop buying a rare item of clothing, and when I get to the till and just putting my card in when girl at the till asks if I want to make a quid donation to the Teenage Cancer Trust. I'm not sure why, but this really riled me that i'd been put on the spot, with the rest of the queue watching. I did donate, but growled at the girl that I don't like being asked those sort of things on the spot. She shrugged, and said she'd been told by head office to ask (i'm aware obvs not her fault). I said that it makes people feel guilty, and they might not be able to afford that last pound. She shrugged again, and said that was head office's idea, to guilt people into donating. The women at the til next to me with a couple of kids was asked and she said that no, she couldn't afford it, but the girl serving her asked again "are you sure?" This pissed me off even more.

For the record, I know that the TCT does AMAZING work, and it's not giving the pound that bothers me, but being put on the spot. I do donate to a couple of charities by Direct debit each month, and the odd bigger ad hoc donation to something when I can afford it. I'm aware that I could've said no, but I would've felt mean and guilty

I think that normally i'm quite a generous person, not sure what i'm trying to say, maybe i'm having a bad day and being a grumpy cow- if so slap me! I just hate this sort of pressure to donate. Could join my hatred of charity chuggers!

I say no (sometimes if they have only said the words 'Would you like to...'). I don't give a shit how many people think bad of me or what the assistant thinks. This is what they rely on. The good old guilt trip.

I'm the same with the ones at the door.

A few years ago we were on holiday trying to get lunch and were pestered by someone selling badges for a local to that area charity. We said no and on the way out she asked again, when we said no she asked if we would give a donation for brain damaged children. Dh pretended to mishear her and said "oh you're collecting brain damaged children have this one" and made as if to hand Ds over (who has very obvious disabilities). Her face was a picture. meanwhile i am stand behind dh pmsl!

This reminds me of an incident - when i was leaving work one day a man was outside asking for donations to a male suicide prevention charity. I was in a hurry and politely declined - as I was walking away, he yelled 'well I hope all your brothers and sons commit suicide then !'
i couldn't believe it ! (I have no brothers but 2 sons). Luckily, same thing happened to other poeple, who complained and he was told to move on.
I do donate to charities, really appreciate the work they do and that its hard to raise funds. But really hate being put on the spot. YANBU.

fucking hell kiwimum!! i would have punched that twat

i hate that 'oh do you know Mrs Rogers at 54? no? oh she was very generous' erm, fuck off. i dont care how gullible my made up neighbours are. Talk Talk use the same tactic when doing door to door 'oh Capt Rickets has signed up for the great deal'. professional money extractors are all the same. my opinion of charities that use them goes right down hill.

A slight deviation here, but along the lines of 'if the large company cares so much...'.

I am equally incensed and astounded at the cynicism of Pampers tetanus vaccine donation per pack sold.

If the vaccines only cost 2.5p each, then it would make me think far higher of them and thus 'endear' their products to me, if only on special offer and still the cheaper option to have just donated the money to purchase sufficient vaccines in the first place, instead of employing their vile 'guilt-marketing'.

Sorry for hijack, rant over now.

And breathe!

(Prepared for flaming for having bought P&G products in the first place, ages before the campaign started I might add, and for having used, gasp, disposable nappies!)

I hate the donations made on my behalf on my rare treat restaurant bill. FFS! Piss off!
When I want to leave a restaurant, with 2 small children, I don't want to have to wait 10 minutes whilst they go and take the 'donation' off, and if I DO have to, they can blardy well take their service charge off too as it is pretty lax service.

The thing is, if the begging strategies work, they'll keep using them, you can understand it of course.

The thing is, you get ClothersRUs begging the customers for money, and then a month later you get 'ClothesRUs' raised x amount for charity, or worse 'ClothesRUs' DONATED x amount for charity.

They don't do it out of the goodness of their hearts, they do it to get charity kudos and win customers.

I don't get the jumping out of a plane thing tbh. Give me money for charity so I can spend some of it on a thrill-seeking adventure - eh?

YANBU. A friend asked me to donate to her DS's gap year trip. I did but I also reevaluated the friendship.

I don't mind the people who are obviously just volunteers standing outside the supermarket as they are a) easy to ignore and b) always grateful and nice to the children, giving them stickers etc if I do bother. On the otherhand I hate the chuggers who are being paid to sign you up as they hassle and hassle and as someone else has said, aren't prepared to let you e.g. just give them a £1.

Regarding something like the OP problem, I'd be tempted to say something like you only ever give money via the official means as that way you can make sure they have all your details and the charity can claim the gift aid as well. TBH it really does make a difference if you're a taxpayer, and it's far better you do it via something that lets you give your address etc and the charity gets the extra 25%. Anyway you were NBU OP, it's damn annoying.

Thanks everyone for your opinions- woken up today in a better mood, and still don't think i'm tight, always good to know!

For future use OP, repeat after me:

"They're not one of my charities".

"They're not one of my charities".

"They're not one of my charities".