AIBU to hope this sad story gives charities that emply cold callers pause for thought.

[MythicalKings]

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/may/14/bristol-pensioner-body-avon-gorge-olive-cooke

Over 200 begging letters in a month from charities and frequent cold callers asking for money.

It's horrific. I know how persuasive they can be, there ought to be a way to opt out of receiving charity calls and letters.

But they don't stop, and that's half the problem. You tell them (and other cold calling companies) to take your name off the list and not to call you again. And they don't take any notice.

I'm afraid you have to do it in writing/by email. With evidence you said no and a time log of calls you will have better ammunition. A "no" over the phone will be ignored.

and tell your new MP. Make them work for you.

For those asking about circumstances surrounding Olive's death, the news last night said she'd taken a step ladder to the bridge and her body was later found in the gorge below.

I really hope this causes people to think about the way charities raise money. Sadly I think nothing will change.

Can someone who is on Twitter, tweet a link to this thread to the Charities Commission, David Cameron, and maybe some of the big charities mentioned on here, with a suggestion that they look into this and take proper steps to deal with the sort of behaviour that so many of you have reported on here, before people stop giving to charity via DD, altogether?

They're not bothered. Nobody would ever care enough to admit that their actions contributed to a death. They'll just blame her age or depression. It'll be dismissed and business as usual.

Gotta collect all that nice money after all. The odd casualty is bound to occur

The glimmer of positive news is that the law has been or is about to be changed. Originally, the threshold for fines was where it could be shown there was substantial damage or distress - clearly this poor lady from Bristol was in substantial distress. Now the law will lower that threshold.
The trouble is, nobody sees how harmful this approach can be particularly to older people. Many older people see these marketing messages as a genuine cry for help and are more inclined to feel obliged to help and guilty if they can't.
Have a chat with any older relatives you have about it.

Can I just speak as a professional fundraiser here (head of fundraising for a small, national charity). We never have, and never will, employ chuggers or door-to-door fundraisers - if people want to support us because we have helped them or they have heard about our work, that's fantastic, but we would never do the "hard sell" on anyone.
Referring back to a PP, some of the biggest charities do pay their CEOs/senior teams salaries in excess of £100k pa, but they are running huge and complex organisations which require a great degree of experience, knowledge and skill. In the corporate sector nobody would think twice if a CEO of a £25m company had a salary of £150k, yet for some reason it's not OK for the same to apply to a charity? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that all charities distribute their income in the right way (you should always look at their accounts to see the %age of income which is spent on charitable activities - for us it's 90% but others are as low at 60%), but surely it's important that people in charge of charities are equally as skilled as those in the corporate sector. Charities can't carry out effective delivery of services if the underlying strategic planning isn't there.
The Fundraising Standards Board is working very hard at the moment to clarify the situation about door-to-door chuggers - we received guidance that "No cold callers" doesn't apply to charities, but they strongly recommended that any household with that sign is unlikely to take favourably to being doorstepped for a direct debit. There are also much stricter rules coming in about approaching vulnerable people (whether due to age, incapacity or any other issues), so I hope that those charities which do employ these sorts of methods will take heed so that cases like this one do not happen again. It's incredibly sad, but I hope it doesn't put people off donating to charities if they have a personal reason for doing so - we aren't all money-grabbing, ruthless salespeople!

Has anyone else here ever worked in this industry? I would imagine that it could be a soul-destroying job telephone-calling people to 'persuade' them into setting up DDs so I would have thought that they would have a high staff turnover.

It's not something I could do myself, certainly.

SleepyChunky I'm shocked that the 'No Cold Callers' doesn't technically include charities. I found this article about the ruling INFO HERE. I'd still be very pissed of if a charity chose to ignore my wishes though. I hope the rules get tightened up soon.

Typo, pissed off not pissed of

I worked for a charity and the fund raising software has a "do not contact" button

There was a thread on here about cold calling from the labour party the other week and the cold callers just wouldn't have it that some people get upset by it. One of the posters made a comment on another thread that clearly meant she had not taken on board that "cold calling" whether it is canvassing or sales or asking for money is intrusive and can cause upset.

'No cold callers' rules DO apply to charities. Whoever said they didnâ??t is simply wrong and will end up with themselves or their clients in court.

I used to have a dd with Age Concern. It is a area close to my heart. However, I had to cancel it after about a year. I was so fed up with the begging letters. The final straw was a massive booklet about elderly people being lonely at Christmas. This thing was huge and probably was a significant chunk of my monthly donation. I just thought, why couldn't you have spent that on the elderly people then! There must be better ways to fundraise.

Have a chat with any older relatives you have about it.

Very sound advice but do be aware that some older relatives may already realise that things are getting out of control but their pride and wish not to own up to what they see as helplessness means they go into concealment mode. This is what happened with my friend and her dm. She had to be exceedingly careful about how she tackled the issue and ended up having to quietly go behind her dm's back. If she openly tried to discuss the matter her dm just shut down the conversation and subsequently hid the evidence.

Another problem is that elderly recipients of these calls will not only feel empathy for the cause but also for the call centre worker they speak to.
Plenty of older people are very savvy and very switched on about these merchants but others are not. If you can do something to help an older friend or relative to be a bit more switched on, you'd be doing them a big favour.

Summerisle, you are so right. Tact and sensitivity is needed.
Isn't it bloody awful to prey on people's goodwill.

Sparky. Charities are exempt from the 'No Cold Callers' signs that people put up on their front doors but are NOT exempt from making telephone cold calls to people registered with the telephone preference service.

The Fundraising Standards Board's information on door to door cold calling is shocking INFO HERE. Charities are allowed to carry out door to door cold calls between the hours of 9am and 9pm on weekdays and 10am and 9 pm on weekends. That's so slack.

I pay a DD to my local hospice, they are great, just send me a monthly email to give me the latest news and have never asked me to increase my donation. Have been donating for a few years.

The worst one ever was when I had just gone on maternity leave and we were skint, had popped into Pets At Home and they had chuggers set up in the doorway with a stall. Got into the shop ok but it was getting out that was the problem. There were 2 of them and they virtually blocked the door to stop me leaving to do the hard sell.

My god, she was persistant and wouldnt let me leave without signing up, but unfortuately for her I am a stubborn miserable boot so she didnt get a penny or a DD out of me. I just wonder how many other people signed up just to get away.

The charity was one that my work supported and i had contributed to it during the fund raising but it was a charity i wouldnt support myself.

"If you don't let me get by, I'll punch you" generally works under these circumstances.

You have to narrow your eyes and say it quietly in a low voice.

Saying something random in Russian is also useful. Nobody ever speaks Russian. Say it aggressively and dismissively.

I was getting very close to that point hiddenhome very close indeed.

I dont normally get stopped by chuggers in town, I put on my best "stop me and i will headbutt you" expression on. Works a charm. I was caught out at Pets At Home, must have been looking happy seeing all the little bunnys.

4 got, I don't think 'no cold callers' signs that people put in their windows have any weight in law. Only an arrogant fool would ignore them because it is clear what the resident thinks. However, neither charities nor double glazing salesmen have a legal obligation to comply with the sign.
There are laws about spam phone calls, texts, emails etc and no uk organisation is exempt from them.

I actually got a series of calls from some debt collection agency - they kept ringing up on the answerphone, asking for variations on 'Some Name or other', demanding I phone them back and being pretty hostile - stopped by the Information Commissioner.

(I may have cried a lot (internet-wise) and said how much they frightened me. Actually they didn't frighten me so much as just irritate the Heck out of me but I can imagine a person who was more frail being genuinely upset.)