To be put off donating to charity?

[kateclarke]

I booked a collection for today, of some old stuff no longer needed.

It was good stuff, a sideboard and electricals that I could have sold but chose to donate.

The people who collected were so rude that i wish I had not bothered. I don't expect them to be on their knees with gratitude, but a smile and a thanks would be nice.

This has happened before with another charity, and I just don't understand their attitude.

Most charity shops are manned by volunteers, and the shop manager may well be tucked away on a back room for most of the day - many feel their time better spent on pricing etc, than on the tills.
So sadly, while the volunteers should be the face of the charity - and nowadays they do actually have job descriptions - they are actually able to be as grumpy as they like because people rarely say anything.

Most Fundraising Managers/Directors would be horrified to know that volunteer staff (or paid drivers) are failing to thank people, or are potentially alienating donors. Unless those Managers are told about the problem, it continues - and the charity (whichever one) loses more and more support.
Please consider calling or dropping a line to fundraising management at the Area or Head Office. They really will want to know, and may instigate improved training for their volunteers.

I have had two of these recently. Two miserable, joy-sucking, face-like-a-slapped-arse workers from two separate charities. I was really pleasant and nice to them and they acted like I was shit on their shoes.

I have worked for charities and collected for charities and given to charities my whole life. I've always managed to be nice so I get to be judgmental about these miserable sods.

No, she did not, she was lovely.

And I do know some people can be right jobsworths. It just occurred to me because some people did come and tell us she was 'odd' and, well, she was but IMO it was good she was doing it.

To add to LRD's point, sometimes the people in charity shops aren't there because they care about the charity. Sometimes they're there because they're on Workfare.

I once volunteered at a shop, and we had a young lady who did not want to be there, but had to be. She was not particularly good at charming donators, no. She wasn't bad. She just wasn't driven to thank for extra funds in the way the people who had volunteered were.

Last year, as a JSA claimant, I asked my job advisor if he could organise a charity shop placement for me. He rang up a shop and pretty much got trapped listening to the manager's litany of complaints about how the charity hadn't been receiving any support from the job-centre. Instead of getting me a placement, he ended up agreeing to remove the shop from the placement list!

I think a lot of people use charity shops as a way to dump any old crap or as a 'recycling' exercise, which makes them feel good about donating to charity but doesn't actually create much benefit. Staff/volunteers spend a lot of time sorting through broken items and unwashed goods - not surprising they get a bit peeved!

Also, people who collect donated stuff are often sub-contracted - they are not employed by the charity.

No excuse for anyone to be rude and grumpy.

But it's quite a big jump to be put off giving for the benefit of people with cancer, without clean water, abused kids, children with leukaemia etc etc forever just because you had a couple of bad experiences.

It might be worth giving constructive feedback to the charity concerned.

Assuming the drivers are paid (although I concede they may be volunteers, then your donations are, at least in part, paying their wages. Thy are also working in a service industry and should act accordingly.

Iyt must be so easy for charity shops to fill their shops with friendly super happy to work all day for free/work placements/ probation..that they can afford to only choose the super friendly happiest people to grovel over donations of used Primark musn't it?

Christ people, the buggers at Tesco are miserable doing the same job..and they get PAID for it. If you want to donate for a good cause, do it. It has fuck all to do with the guy who is taking the box out of your hand.