to vow never to collect for Christian Aid ever again.

[bogwobbit]

Nothing to do with the charity, which I think is an excellent one, but jeez people in this country are soooooooo miserable.
I can understand why people for various reasons can't or don't want to give to a specific charity and I can appreciate (especially after reading some other threads on this topic and by the way yes, all you people who complain about people daring to knock on your door collecting for charity, are unreasonable and imho quite selfish) that not everyone likes to be asked on their doorstep (very nicely in my case) if they would like to donate but why do people have to be so rude and smug and downright horrible about it. It's almost as though NOT giving to charity is some kind of positive personality trait. Funnily enough the nicest, most generous ones are the little old ladies who quite possibly can least afford it.

So after spending five hours of my time, trudging through the rain and the hail and the wind in freezing temperatures after a full day at work, never again!! Rant over but jeez, another nail in the coffin, for my faith in humanity :)

The op was rude herself on several occasions. If you going to be rude people are going to be rude back.

I'd much rather have doorstep collectors than be accosted by those youngsters with clip boards who try to sign you up for a monthly direct debit.

Good for people for doing it trestle. But some people find it intrusive to be disturbed at home, and some of those people may well do a lot for charity themselves, and to call them selfish is a bit much.

That's the point i was getting at.

"the impression I got was that the op has said hardly anything at all, just that peeps have been rude to her"

yes that's all she has said. honestly, why bother posting if you are only cherry picking parts of the thread that you want to see?

"Coming from someone who has the time and money to spend half their week knocking on doors"

That's a little unfair LRD. People do this in addition to all the things they normally do, not instead, and in many cases give generously of time they can't really afford. Collectors come from all backgrounds/income levels.

Fanjo she was only rude after people had been rude to her- look upthread, there's absolute reams of it

she'd have to be pretty fucking saintly not to be rude, imo. I'd've told everyone to poke it and fucked off by the second page

but then I'm not a Christian Aid collector

Boo fwiw I have gone down the thread with the ops points highlighted

she'd been accused of all kinds of nonsense before she got rattled and got cross back. As would anyone.

The original post itself was written in a very inflammatory way. I think you must be reading something different to me! It's admirable that someone chooses to do something for charity, but that does not give you the right to judge others and call them selfish if they don't like their doors being knocked in the evenings.

I'm still laughing at the '?sharpens pitchfork?' post from pages ago

"but jeez people in this country are soooooooo miserable."

" by the way yes, all you people who complain about people daring to knock on your door collecting for charity, are unreasonable and imho quite selfish"

so tehre was nothing in either of these comments that you could see would get people's backs up? nothing there that you consider rude?

I've read exactly the same as you, Fanjo- I thought "oh, you poor cow" at the op and didn't change my mind for the rest of the thread

still, if we were all the same, it would be boring, wouldn't it?

I'm so sick of charity muggers. Be that banging on my door or stopping me in the street. I'm all charity'ed out. Those ads with dying African kids on tv are the worst. We've been throwing money at Africa since the 70s. Surely those pipelines for fresh water should be done by now?

As for christian charities, bang on the Vatigen's door and ask them!

trestle - ok, but the OP's snarky comments about how lacking in compassion and generosity people were did get on my nerves. She has no idea what they can afford or what they're busy with. The only certainty is, she herself demonstrably can afford to spend her time and money out knocking on doors.

I don't think it's unfair to point that out when the OP seems so hell-bent on portraying everyone else as meanies and herself as a martyr.

Have only read some early and late pages, so doubtless will repeat other's views!

I think that there is still a lot of charity in the population as a while - CIN, Sport Relief etc still do very well.

But direct collection has just changed so much since I was a child.

In part, I think we sometimes expect something for our donation - e.g. Sponsoring an event in Sport Relief.

In a way, I used to feel ( and sometimes still with some charities) that you got that from doorstep collections. Here we're people giving up their time to do something quite hard and boring. So I would donate from admiration for them, not just the charity. Almost like the collectors are a sponsored event!

But now charity is literally big business - and I do think it's chugging that has caused many of us to dislike charity collection. CA Week isn't chugging, but I suppose there's just so much of it, that it feels the same.

I tend to give most through JustGiving pages, and then some through collection buckets. I do not open my door to people, and I always so no to chuggers.

Even though I know it has been an effective way for charities to get donations, I can't get past my discomfort with another company profiting.

It is people giving their time and effort for free that inspires me to donate. I am generally humbled, and it's their demonstration of charity that prompts mine. Chugging can't have that relationship,

Had the Christian Aid man a couple of days ago , he was an older gentleman, a very nice chap and I gave him £10.

The chuggers on the OTOH are collecting huge commissions and are usually young and setup so that every penny goes to the chugging company for the first year. They are also staggered down the street so that you can't avoid them, and I think they are dreadful.

i think the OP has had a bit of an unfair bashing here - she is not a chugger - and i believe that she did what she did for the right reasons (despite my not being able to afford to give much in my envelope and not really agreeing with the methodology of door step collecting)

have a heart. maybe thats the OPs point. some of the responses on here have been rude, aggressive with many deleted posts - i think the OP has proved her point tbh.

shame really. i only gave 50p as it is at the moment all i could give - massive money probs abound....but i would never be rude to someone collecting for CA. now the door step chuggars who get paid are a different kettle of fish altogether....

We don't get CA collecting around here but if they did and had the same attitude as the OP they'd get nothing off me.

It wasn't the op that sparked deleted posts. It was the ridiculous comment made further along in the thread.

And the op actually said that people who dislike door step collecting were selfish, so that would include you?

yanbu
proseletising bigots

ninah you've made completely incorrect assumptions about Christian Aid. They don't "prosletise" at all, and they're not bigots - they simply help the poorest people in the world. They exist to help others, not to convert or boast. Their work, history and outlook are described on their website.

I don't suppose ninah knows what proselytising is, seeing as she can't even spell it.

Good post sciencelover. And unfortunately, too many rude people at the door can reduce the number of people willing to take on a street, so while the maximum anyone will receive is one person collecting at their door, some areas are not covered at all. This has a direct impact on how much the charity can raise.

ironic but thanks for the biscuit