To never donate to charity via text again

[MoistSponge]

A couple of weeks ago I saw a really heart rending "advert" for a UNICEF appeal for the people suffering in the Southern Sudan.

The images were harrowing, those poor little children, and so I texted and donated a fiver.

Since then I have received three phone calls asking me to donate more - the first two calls were both received while I was driving, so I quickly told them that I already have direct debits set up for my charitable donations and that I wouldn't be able to commit to anything further, but I didn't let them go into their full spiel as I was on Bluetooth.

Tonight I received a call again, and I started straight away telling the man about my direct debits (I sponsor a child in Africa and I have a small monthly DD set up for another charity) and that I wasn't going to be able to give anymore - and then the "hard sell" started. Lots of very emotive language about the children dying and that famine is coming; lots of "buttering me up" telling me I have a good soul and he could hear it beating from me and that I'm clearly very intelligent and blah, blah, blah. It was pretty relentless to be honest and I felt very uncomfortable having to constantly defend myself by telling him that I can't give any more money. In the end I told him that I am on a low income, I'm a single parent to two children and I cannot afford anymore, I told him that five pounds is a lot of money to me but I had still given it with a full heart but that I CANNOT GIVE ANY MORE.

Fucking hell. This isn't the first time this sort of thing has happened. I did the Race For Life for a few years, raising not huge amounts but a few hundred pounds in sponsorship. I get a phone all every year asking me for more and even though I tell them that I already give to my nominated charities they just won't stop.

I really want to complain to UNICEF TBH, the call came from a fund raising company that they are using, but it almost felt like talking to a bloody double glazing company or worse...timeshare! And the other thing is that they could be using this very aggressive technique on people who are more vulnerable than me and it just feels wrong. It has completely put me off donating by text to anything ever again, AIBU?

rooner what an awful thing to say. Your last paragraph is totally contradictory and I take issue with you generalising like that. Everyone stop donating to charity and watch what happens. You'll find many of them plugging holes in society which the government has no hope of filling. I think your corruption statement is actually quite harmful. This thread is about one particular way of fundraising and I agree the method is carried out badly in many cases. But charities are not all run the same way and yes some of them are giving the sector a bad name. I hope something is done about it soon. I also hope most people can see that it's not across the board though.

Its all very well imploring mners to become more confident and say no, but these call centres deliberately target people who are less able to say no - we've all heard about elderly people giving far more than they can afford because of the pressure put on them.

I agree badkitten but if you can't say no to an undertrained kid on the phone on nmw you're going to struggle with real con artists/ the pushy co parent at school/ the weird neighbour/ the unfair teacher at your dcs school/ your daughter's abusive boyfriend (as well as modelling that it's bad to say no)

Assertiveness. The ability to not be railroaded into doing what you don't want to do without feeling bad about it is an essential life skill. Instead of complaining about the charities' behaviour solve the problem by doing something about it yourself.

*How much of our donation is wasted on a call centre continually calling us?

I have stopped donating to a number of charities because of this. You give once, by text, and they then call you daily when you are at work. It needs to be better regulated.*

But that precisely what makes the fundraising cost effective. They use the 'donate by text' approach to identify people who are willing to give, and try to convert them into regular donors. It would be a waste of money to spend lots on advertising to just get the one-off text donations.

I know it is annoying being harassed in this way - my heart sinks when I pick up the phone to one of these type of calls. And some of the examples of bad practice that always get unearthed on threads like these make me ashamed to defend the sector. As I said earlier I don't think enough thought goes into ethical fundraising practice, not least because in the long term at tracing public mistrust is deeply damaging to the charities themselves, even if it does bring in the funds in the short term.

But if charities took the kind of passive approach to fundraising that people seem to want (sitting back and waiting until people felt motivated to donate), many would simply cease to exist, it's that simple.

No charity will use a fundraising method that doesn't work.

Even continual harassment it seems. Just because it "works" does not make it right and ethical.

These methods may 'work' in the short term, because if you badger enough people, some of them will give you money. But the long term damage to goodwill may outweigh that.

As above. Thought originally that this would be a good way to donate. Did it a few times and then the phone calls..........

Again, please consider smaller charities for your donations, fundraising etc.

Our charity is run entirely by volunteers so our costs are really low, in fact we often cover things like stamps out of our own pockets. That means more money can go to where it can help.

We don't badger people into donating or harass them for more money. Most of our fundraising is done by friends and friends of friends. We have a lot of sporty supporters who do sponsored events for us. We use cheap methods like Facebook and Internet to publicise the charity.

We collect a lot of money via text donations and JustGiving (which does cost but the extra donations make it worthwhile).

I think people do stop donating though because of harassment. My DH is one.

I do prefer now to give to smaller, local charities for the reasons above. There is also a website where you can check the costs expended by a charity and see exactly how much goes on costs.

Someone criticised me up thread for stating this. But I choose to donate my hard earned cash to charities with lower costs. I suspect most people don't check this and I would love to see the breakdown of these "costs". Big charities are businesses and it is naive not to appreciate that some are far more ethical than others.

my policy is that I don't chose who I give my money to on a "who's been harrassing me" basis - rather the opposite.

Any charity who tries to get my bank details off me in the street for a direct debit is out. Any charity who phones me without any contact from me requesting it.. no.

and I tell them that when they attempt it.

It's actually really difficult to judge charities against each other based on their finances, as different charities may have different levels of overheads depending on the nature of their work, it doesn't necessarily mean they aren't effective.

You can tell that when you look at the accounts though.

One charity I was really keen on had to spend a lot on buying supplies in which accounted for the majority of their spend. However, on closer inspection the supplier of those goods was a connected party and they were making a huge profit margin compared to when they sold the same product on the open market.

Unicef and British Red Cross are a total nightmare for this. I've had a letter thanking me for a donation and asking me for another in the same breath from both of those Charities. This compares badly to, for instance, Women's Aid who wrote a lovely letter thanking me for donation and saying the sort of work it would be used for but who have not pestered me about it since them. Medecins Sans Frontieres and St Mungo's also did not pester following donations. I give one off donations for charities as it's the most tax efficient way for my circumstances and the ones that constantly pester are less likely to get a future donation even though I am supportive of their work.

I have no problem at all donating to charities who state they have administration costs, and pay their staff a fair wage. I want my money to be used efficiently, and sometimes employing professionals, and having a properly-run organisation, help them do just that.

(I am part of several charities who run on volunteers, and who do excellent work, but I think we'd do even better if we could afford proper, professional help.)

And of course you find the occasional bad egg, but you shouldn't slur the rest of the sector by saying they are all like that. They aren't.

I think what people are saying is that you should be more discerning about your choice of charity and make an informed decision. There are thousands of charities out there and not all are well run or doing good! But there are many more that are and you have to be comfortable with who you donate to

On the main topic - I see no reason why charities should be able to act in an aggressive manner to fund raise just because they aren't a private business. There must be a way to complain to the charities commission about tactics?

Just returning quickly to pick up in a couple of points, firstly I'm not going to stop donating to charity - I will continue donating through my direct debits (I've grown rather fond of my update letters about the child I sponsor, and although I'm aware that child sponsorship is also a hot button topic for some, I believe that my donations are helping in some tiny way) I will continue shoving a couple of quid into a collecting bucket, I will carry on sponsoring my friends via just giving when they're doing something mad.

I think OYBBK makes a great point about the ethics involved in charities outsourcing fund raising to private companies who then badger, guilt and distress doners; it's true that this arse who called me, had he caught me on a low day, may well have wangled another fiver out of me, but at what cost? He has ensured that I won't be donating to UNICEF again and I note that several others have said the same. It's not as black and white as option a) being the charities sit and wait for donations or b) aggressively pursue people for long term financial commitments. This is borne out by my continued commitment to both the charities I support who LEAVE ME ALONE except for the occasional newsletter or thank you letter.

Finally, I'd like to pick up on the comments about just putting down the phone. Not everyone is the same, not everyone has masses of "fuck you, no" in them, not everyone is happy being "rude" especially when it's a charity calling. Believe me, I can and do tell PPI callers and energy companies to Do One. The onus should not be on me to tell someone to fuck off or put the phone down on them, the onus should be on THEM to accept when someone tells them that they can't donate any more money and say THANKS FOR YOUR DONATION and then say goodbye.

I had this experience donating to Plan UK, but I got about 37 phone calls as they were using some kind of automated system. I complained to the charity but received no response. It was very off putting and I will never donate by text again because of it. What a stupid system for the sake of a £3 donation!

The other terrible issue with some big charities is the massive holes they have in their pension schemes, for which some donations fill the gap.

It is horrendous.

Some of the comparisons here are a bit like saying "because Tesco has had some problems recently I shall no longer buy a pint of milk in the corner shop". There is a huge range of charities providing really valuable services, often those that Government can't provide(and certainly not for the same cost) and it is a shame that that range, and the variety of needs it covers, is not acknowledged.

And on another point made above, after 26 years in the sector I have never worked for a charity with its own pension scheme, deficit or not! It's not like the public sector!

XH used to give RSPCA and Cancer Research £5 a month by dd. then they both started calling regularly asking for larger sums. He then cancelled both DD's. since then I have given money mainly to local charities like Hospices and Air Ambulance. That way the money benefits your own community and friends and family.

If I get calls from charities, or door knockers, I simply say that I already donate the maximum I can to charity and end the conversation.

The tesco comparison isn't right. No one is saying they won't donate to other charities because these particular charities use dubious fundraising tactics.

Most are saying tesco had problems so now I am going to shop in the corner shop. Or go to asda instead

There's a Q&A coming up with someone from Unicef , its in the sponsored q&a section.

Speaking to a colleague about chuggers etc, she said that she had a phone call from Great Ormond Street hospital asking for a substantial donation (£10,000). She asked the caller to explain why the hospital thought she could afford such a sum, to be told that they knew she had recently received her DM's estate of many £k because they trawl published wills!

PicandMinx - wow. In a way I admire their resourcefulness, but a call like that would have me slamming the phone down and writing a stiff letter demanding to be taken off their database.

Tell them to take you off their contact lists.

Don't say I'm not interested, or no thanks, give a direct instruction,. You can be specific and say I don't mind email but NO telephone calls. If you do have a direct debit tell them you don't want telefundraising calls, or upgrade requests.

If you don't want to say over the phone, go to the website and email. Remembering to give your name, post code and address.