To wonder how charities such as Shelter and The Red Cross can afford to pay 8-11 per hour...

[Fourfingerkitkat]

...for the street fundraisers that stop you about every 10m in the street ?

Now I know they can't solely rely on volunteers but 8-11 quid per hour ?

I was stopped by a guy the other day raising money for shelter...took the time to listen to him (and is crap banter) and the look of contempt I got whenn I explained that I was made redundant, not receiving benefits and struggling to pay the mortgage every month was priceless !

Does anyone actually make money doing this ? I assume the pay must be commission based ?

How do you know how much they are paid?

If in that hour he manages to get £100 worth of money for the charity then surely it works out a good move for them?

8-11 an hour is not exactly riches...
Why should anyone get paid less than that??

"Chuggers" are often very driven sales types looking for more sales experience and to work for a good cause. And from an investment point of view, apparently as a charity you can reasonably expect every £1 spent on fundraising to bring in £4, so they easily pay their way.

If you're genuinely interested in how charities work, why not look into trusteeship of a local organisation near you? I'm a trustee and it's one if the most rewarding things I've done.

I would think more of the charities concerned if I knew that they were paying their staff a decent wage (even though I detest the whole concept of chuggers).

I will never donate to shelter on te street again after one of their people tried to trick me into thinking I was sending a one off text to donate once but it was an ongoing monthly thing.

She withheld that into til I was about to press send

Chuggers used to get a percentage of what they collected, so it was in tehir interest to collect oodles.

They are usually not employed by the charity itself but by a chugging company. The individual chugger will do a different charity everyday and be on commission. , around 10% of what you donate per month goes to the company- the companies don't get paid by the charities the sponsor pays the company.
It operates in a similar way to no win no fee solicitors. One off payments on the charity website is a way to ensure none of your donation goes to chuggers.

Don't donate to these big corporate charities- they are very wasteful and operate more like businesses than charities.

Eg using black cabs instead of public transport/lifts/private hire

Buying staff newspapers to read

Buying expensive tea/coffee/biscuits

Having offices in swanky locations even when clients live in deprived ones

Spending £££ on 'rebranding' and stupid IT systems

If you want to help people give to small local charities.

If I can't afford to give money to a charity I just meet their eye, politely say "Sorry, can't stop" and keep walking. My time and their time is not wasted.

OP, sorry to hear of your financial situation. Are you definite that you are not entitled to any benefits? CAB or Turn2Us can carry out a benefits check - www.turn2us.org.uk

I did chugging for a summer season, the tactics are horrendous, the pay is commission based and you are "encouraged" to do anything to get it or you're out. They thought nothing of signing up people who really couldn't afford it with heavy handed manipulative tactics and specifically target poor, disabled and poorly educated people.

If you want to help charity, go local, give up your time or donate unwanted goods or food but avoid the chuggers.

I had this job once. I got told that the charities don't pay me, it came from the government.
It's an awful shitty job.

*WhereYouLeftIt - I was looking at jobs on Gumtree and saw these jobs advertised at 8-11 ph

NowThenWreck - Agree that it is far from riches but it's a hell of a lot more than the wages I've been offered whilst looking for work.

CommunistMoon - Thanks very much for the link. I'll double check but am pretty sure that we're not entitled to any more help. Lost our tax credits last year and only getting child benefit now. On paper DH has a good wage but the mortgage & other household bills are just too much without my salarly. I was on £20k so it's a big wage to lose...Doing the same as lots of others in our boat and trying to cut back wherever possible but then you get to a point where you think "we can't do this anymore..."

I'm not wanting to knock charities, realise they do a lot of great work but was pissed off my this guy's condescending attitue and fake pleasantries towards my kids. Also told me I have a beautiful name (which I don't)...felt like asking him if he was looking for my money or a f*ing date !

Chugging is awful but more generally if charities want a professional standard of work they have to pay for it (at much lower rates than you would find in the private or public sector.)

Small local charities do great work but some of them are governed and managed appallingly. As are some big charities.

I hate this street vendor bashing that goes on. One guy who sells the big issue in my city used to be a medical pathologist. But life took a bad turn for him in ways I hope you never experience.
So don't take your bitterness out on these guys.
As a nurse I regularly had to patch them up in a& e when other better off people had decided to set fire to their clothes or punch them for a laugh cos they haveit too good don't they!

Leena49...no charity bashing from me...just irritated with one particular guy and surprised by how much they appear to be getting paid.

With regards to the Big Issue sellers, yeah I do feel sorry for them usually however when I see some of them stoned out of their face on God knows what I lose a bit of the sympathy. Having said that I don't know how I would handle sleeping rough and standing in the pissing rain or cold selling a magazine that 90% of the public don't want to read.

Charities are in a difficult position. Personally I despise chugging and telefundraising - at least an advert or a letter you can easily ignore. But of course that's the reason they do it - they need to recruit new donors and getting in people's faces tends to be the most effective way.

As for why they pay decent wages - because it's a horrible horrible job and very few people would do it for less. The same goes for charities generally - bigger ones tend to pay well, but they pay well so they get good experienced professional staff who will do a good job.

Unfortunately, fundraising costs charities a lot of money - that in theory would be better spent directly on their cause. But if they didn't fundraise, then the donations would peter out and that would be the end of them. It's a hard balance to get right.

That said OP - I encourage you to complain directly to the charity if you've had a bad experience with a chugger. They won't know unless you tell them, and if they do they can raise this with the company who can retrain or discipline the person involved.

If the pay sounds good, you could apply for the job. Better than applying for jobs that pay less, no? or would you rather not do the job even if it pays more? Then maybe that's why it pays more

If the pay sounds good, you could apply for the job. Better than applying for jobs that pay less, no? or would you rather not do the job even if it pays more? Then maybe that's why it pays more

mercibucket - I couldn't do the hours because of childcare commitments and if you saw my bank balance would appreciate that I do not think I'm "too good for" or above certain jobs.

It was a simple question as I am genuinely surprised that organisations trying to make money for the poor/needy are paying above the minimum wage.

Don't look at what the CEOs get paid then, you'll have a heart attack!
I'd rather they paid a reasonable hourly wage than worked on commission tbh, it annoys me when they are overly pushy

They stand around in Manchester openly recruiting for chuggers, wearing shirts that say "8 quid an hour"

Generally charities keep a very close eye on expenditure and that includes fundraising costs and things like taxis etc. Some income will inevitably be spent on things like IT and biscuits but who wants to work in an environment that has hopelessly outdated IT and begrudges you a cup of tea? A well managed charity which looks after its staff will have less waste and deliver better services.

I agree about the posh central London offices, though. Not usually necessary.

The fact is that most people don't give to charity unless they have had some experience in their lives that makes them decide to donate - like a serious illness - or they are asked. Asking people for money is difficult and very expensive.

A good way to give to charity if you want to and can afford to is to make a regular donation by direct debit. Its also good to leave something in your will. I have specified an amount and my children will choose which charities will be the eventual beneficiaries.