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 :)

I do not want to be bothered by door to door collectors. I had a particularly agressive woman from Red Cross who would not go away until I had signed up to a direct debit. I immediately cancelled it and put the phone down on them when they rang up.

I have my chosen charities and I gift aid through my bank account to them. End of. So I turn all door to door collectors away, that is if I get as far as opening the door.

ANd I don't give to street collectors who shake tins in my face either. I want to shop in peace and not be hounded at every street corner.

sorry, that got away from me a bit, didn't it

But chucking a few coins in an envelope is no big deal and there's no need for anyone to be rude to you, even if it is their choice to not give.

Bogwobbit, you say you're not rude, but actually you are with all the sneering about "homes" and "privacy" and at your colleagues who have to explain why they don't want to sponsor you.

bogwobbit i think you need to do your homework a bit better. it is indeed banned to rattle charity tins and you shouldn't have been collecting this morning as it was saturday.

Hectate I can assure you I have no interest in getting anyone's bank details nor did I abuse them or insult them or put pressure on them to give money.

bog - I think you are vpbeing completely ridiculous about their being no society if you read one of my later posts I make the point (which I think is valid) that charities have to Taylor their fundraising to what suits best the various demographics of society. That is neither unreasonable nor uncharitable

• particularly as charitable giving is discretionary. Charities and their collectors forget that at their peril

I was sympathetic to your position to begin with but, to be honest, your post sounds whiny and self entitled. Not a great advertisement for Christian aid at all.

see my second post

I think they have a cheek calling it Christian Aid, and I make a point of telling them this is offensive to me when they call round, they probably think I'm rude but as things done in the name of Christianity account for much of the violence, cruelty and child abuse that has gone on over the years I think they deserve it.

I hate people hounding me in the street. A bloke a few weeks ago asked if I wanted to stop cruelty to animals. 'not really' I told him, to which he rambled on about about animal haters. Wa wa wa, whatever.
Or the woman who turned up at my door at midday when I'd been up all night writing essays for uni who told me I looked awful and did I want to donate each month to blind children. Which blind children? What for? Couldn't give me a leaflet so she was told to leave.
I hate charity collectors full stop. Greenpeace are my absolute most detested charity after they took 1000 instead of 10 pounds one month due to a decimal point error then hounded me months after I stopped donating to inform me how selfish I was and that 'everybody can afford 5pounds a month'.
So yabu to expect cheery chappy people when you ask for money at their door.

Apocalypse I wasn't rude to them and I'm not sneering at their 'homes' and 'privacy' - I actually find it quite sad.

*IAmBooyhoo" - is it actually illegal to collect on a Saturday. I don't believe it is but if you tell me what law it's breaking, I'll believe you.

This, from Hecate:

"Has anyone ever read a thread(or had a conversation) where someone says ooh, I'm so pissed off, there was a really nice, friendly and polite person at my door asking me with no pressure whatsoever whether I might be willing to donate something and when I said I couldn't afford to, they gave me a huge smile and said not a problem at all, have a nice day, should I report them to someone?"

The reason I object to so many charity callers is precisely because I am somebody that enjoys giving, and they are taking all the pleasure away and spoiling it for me by their constant hints that if I am not choosing to give to their precise charity at this precise moment in time, I am a selfish person who has no empathy with other people.

And don't start me on workplace donating please. Again, that is discretionary. I give very generously to friends and family who are collecting but I do not have an unlimited pot of money to donate to every colleague who is choosing todo something for charity.

Again, people are under no obligation to give to colleagues. Perhaps the colleague in question was finding the whole thing a bit awkward and was trying to make a joke.

Some of the excuses that my generally well-paid colleagues gave were shameful. Bearing in mind that the charity I was collecting for then was a children's charity, one man told me that "he already gave to one child" i.e. his own son, and actually thought it was hilarious.

Bog, you had my sympathy up till this point - putting your colleagues in a position where they feel they have to make excuses not to sponsor you is really poor form IMO and makes you a bad colleague. You don't use the workplace atmosphere to try to squeeze money out of people. You just don't.

Sending 'round an email with a JustGiving link and an apology - fine - not cornering people in person.

How do you know what else he is doing with his money? Who are you to judge?

bogwobbit, well done for collecting for Christian Aid. IMO it's an excellent cause, working against poverty and injustice, regardless of religion/nationality/ethnicity.

I know that CA collectors often do a thankless job, and that you do it for free. I also know that you will be, in all likelihood, just asking for the envelope, and not arguing or pushing anything. Very different from a smarmy salesperson trying to push double glazing for their own commission - and it's a shame some people choose to be so rude.

The first Christian Aid Week and red envelopes were in 1957 so this is a well-established form of fundraising. I've also heard that CA were the first charity to do the envelope-through-the-door charity collections - and others copied.

We had the NSPCC round the other week wanting £5 a week. When I said no he told me that children would starve because of me. So I told him my children would starve if I did give to them.

I just want to be given the choice to pick who I want to donate too. It's never going to be someone who knocks on my door.

I actually find it quite sad.

But I find myself wondering whether it's any of your business to find it sad that people want to enjoy their homes and families without feeling pressure to fob off charity collectors.

Ah, "whiny and self entitled" - great insult Shiny. Almost as good as that old chestnut "naive". Still, perhaps saying there is no such thing as society was a bit ott.
Hectate - apologies. Cross posts.

I don't think it is an insult. I think it's a matter of fact. I don't seem to be the only person whose picked up on it either.

is it actually illegal to collect on a Saturday

OP my DP is not around today, or else I'd ask him (he is a charity FR manager) but I believe all charities sign up to a code of conduct and this is against it. So your charity could be fined if someone complained. Not sure though.

Sorry, I don't want to be bothered In My Own Home, so therefore I am Not Part of Society and I Don't Care, and Margaret Thatcher was right? Have I understood you correctly?

pre-DD I used to collect for Actionaid, similar principle in that I would put through an envelope (with mon-fri ticked to say which day I would be back) and then collect on that day. If people didn't answer the door/didn't want to give it wasn't a biggie and I certainly didn't judge them for it (unlike the OP, it seems...)

We don't seem to get Christian Aid around here, I did give short shrift to a Sikh bloke last week who, when I opened the door, recoiled visibly and asked 'doesn't an Asian family live here?' (erm, no, that would be our neighbours), then decided to try and get some money out of me anyway for his Asian children-related charity, then when I gave him £2 actually had the damn cheek to hassle me saying 'come on, sister, what's £5 to you?' - I told him in no uncertain terms I was not his sister and if he didn't sod off I'd take the 2 quid back again!

I have to run a gauntlet of chuggers to and from work, I do not need hassle on my doorstep! (and if you came to my desk personally asking for money I would probably give but be slightly with you too, tbh)

I don't like people stopping me, or calling at my door, asking for money - whatever the cause. If I want to give money I will find an appropriate cause to give it too. I don't appreciate being guilt tripped about the plight of whoever or whatever it might be...

Begging on behalf of a charity is still begging.

I am never rude though- - but it makes me feel very awkward. IO don't like to say no to anyone's "good cause" (or to any beggar in the street either) but I simply cannot give to everyone, and find being asked face to face very intrusive.

Perhaps I came across wrongly but what I meant was that, in my opinion, a considerable number of people that I came across as lacking generosity, compassion or interest in helping anyone apart from themselves. Obviously that is completely different to not wanting to be bothered in your own home and I apologise if I put it badly.
I can fully understand people feeling the latter. What I don't like is the downright rudeness I encountered.

I disagree about collecting for charity being begging although that is what a lot of people made me feel I was doing. Never again though.

I mentioned the CA collector due back today, but would add that was at our request as we'd mislaid the envelope.