To think charity street fundraisers should be banned?

[Tittletatt]

Not the ones who just have a pot and are asking for small change. The commission earning, high pressure ones employed to pressure you into a direct debit.
My friend in desperation applied to be one and said they were trained in all sorts of manipulative sales techniques and even told to pretend people had dropped money to get their attention.
Apologies if this has been done before but some new ones have just set up in my town. You physically have to move out of their way as they block your path trying to engage you and I just can’t believe they’re still legal.

My local hospitals have their own charity and station people by the entrances trying to talk to you as you enter and leave. I can't believe anyone thinks it's a good idea. I've had life changing news and then had to dodge someone wanting a quick chat as I try and leave? Or a loved one has just died? Or I'm not looking forward to what I'm about to undergo? No thanks.

I hate them with passion. I usually tell them where to go in a foreign language. I support Dogs Trust, they still pester to sponsor more dogs.

I agree, they know who to target.

I cannot stand them, the whole practice should be banned, at one point you couldn't go more than 20ft along our high street without another approaching, there were so many complaints the council have put caps as to how many can be operating in the high street at one time.

I equally loathe the ones door knocking, ten to seven last night a Great Ormond Street representative knocked on the door, I'd not long got in from work and was trying to cook dinner, what on earth makes them think many people will be receptive to these tactics. It is pressure selling, no better than those dodgy double glazing people who used to turn up uninvited!

My DH is not vulnerable just daft. We get yearly updates from his Elephant. We could have visited the bugger 3 times over what he forks out.

Its aggressive begging and should be delt with by the authorities as aggressive begging.

We get yearly updates from his Elephant

🤣🤣🤣🤣

That made me laugh too!

I used to get elephant updates! Yes probably could have visited him ;)

@batvixen123 They bring in a lot of money for charities. There have been multiple studies done - branching into street fundraising is one of the few ways to noticeably increase your donor pool. People always say "well, I don't like them so I won't give to that charity now" on posts like these, but statistically those were people who weren't giving already and probably weren't going to give. Most people don't stop giving if they are already engaged.

Bullying people into paying money they can't afford, through the appalling tactics described in this thread, and then creaming off huge portions of it for unnecessary jollies, corporate events, and massive salaries, is not justified because 'it increases your donor pool'/

I work in charity fundraising.

Of course you do. There's a reason that this sector is more and more hated by many people. It's the absolute blindness to the unethical practices of especially the biggest charities, who ignore every bit of immoral behaviour from harassing elderly/young/vulnerable people in their own homes, all the way up to Oxfam using donation money to buy underage sex workers for its employees in Haiti and then covering it up.

@batvixen123

P.S. Before you trot out the usual line of claiming that the only people who say these things are just trying to make excuses for not donating I want to point out that I donate a big proportion of my not-big income to two charities by direct debit (one is a small charity that runs an orphanage and school in Kenya, we sponsor two children to go to school there, and the other is my local hospice) and also make frequent one-off donations to other charities such as DEC, Medecins sans frontiers, homeless shelters, etc.

But as soon as I see a chugger representing any charity, I will never donate to them again. I was harassed by two UNICEF chuggers when I was heavily pregnant and late for a work meeting, a few years ago. They were like actual school bullies. It's appalling.

Big shout - out to my local air ambulance, who did this properly.
They had a stall at a local market and were being friendly but not harassy, and seemed genuinely knowledgeable about what the air ambulance did. I said I didn't have my account details with me so I couldn't sign up - the bloke asked if it would be ok to phone me, and I said yes. The same person then phoned me several days later, I gave my bank details and have been paying a small sum monthly ever since. If everyone worked like that, there'd be many fewer complaints!

I usually find a good answer to any of them saying you are horrible for not donating or asking how much something on your person cost is “so i take it by that comment you are giving your time for free then?” Shuts them right up
Also as someone who works with vulnerable people with learning disabilities who lots of them been manipulated to hand over bank details to these chuggers I don’t have any problem telling them to fuck off if needs be

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a city in my county. There's always been a couple of chuggers & others asking for money, but the numbers have really increased - on this particular day I was slaloming down the high street to avoid 9 different groups, from different charities.

I think I must have a nice face, as I get stopped all the time. And I struggle to be rude to them, so when they start with a nice greeting or phrase, I struggle not to reply. But I usually do say to them (once I can get a word in) that I won't sign up to anything today, but they can give me information to take away - funnily enough, they lose interest in me really quickly.

But often I just want to be left alone to my own business. It's got worse & worse lately.

Had one from the Red Cross come to the door. Started out by telling me that she wasn’t going to patronise me by telling me what the Red Cross does, at which point I said that I wasn’t going to give her money. “Oh I’m not asking for money,” she said, at which point I replied that I wasn’t going to sign a direct debit either. At that point she became somewhat aggressive and shouted “don’t you care about people in the 3rd world?” At which point I said “no.” And shut the door.

I definitely think that something needs to be done about these chuggers. However I also think that all door knocking should be made illegal. That way you would not only get rid of the charity chuggers, but also the bible bashers, the cleanease/avon/, but you would also get rid of the scammers like the Nottingham knockers and the dodgy art seller pretending to be deaf, and other such ne’er-do-wells.

Chuggers earn between £9-12 an hour btw. In fact my mum told one of them that as he approached her one day and he backed off pretty sharpish.

However I also think that all door knocking should be made illegal.

I would love this!!

I had one in town block my way on the way to the train station to get the train to work ‘just get the next one’. Told him to do one.

Now I say ‘I don’t give to charities that employ chuggers’. They might start to argue they aren’t one so all I say is ‘yes you are’ and walk away.

They also target women which is disgraceful, I assume out of fear of how a man might react to their aggressive behaviour.

“don’t you care about people in the 3rd world?” At which point I said “no.” And shut the door.

🤣👏

None of that money even gets to those people! Complete scam.

YANBU they go around universities recruiting students desperate for flexible work. And they are lets say, very robust about it there. One came to my uni. My friends and I were attemptng to walk down some steps (which is already difficult for me as I have a disability) and the recruiter barred our descent and shoved a clipboard in front of us and said "Are you students? Do you want guaranteed work? Just put your name down and you're guaranteed to be recruited, and it's flexible you can work in the evenings"

So naturally I asked what it entailed and then he suddenly became coy and said its "just a bit of fundraising for good causes"

So I asked what type of fundraising? And he reluctantly admitted it involved street canvassing and the evening work was "neighbourhood fund raising"

So I said "Thanks but sorry, I disagree with what you do. I find it unethical"

He got all upset and rudely said "well you'd be rubbish at it anyway" Charming.

He was right though.

I agree, most chuggers are students.

The ones near me do a lot of pantomime acting, 'got the time love?' to distract you.

Agree. I get accosted almost every lunch break, if i want to donate i will do so when ready and by signing up online, like i have done with the current charities i support

There were 2 in our Sainsbury's Local at the weekend. My husband tried to give them cash but they said they could only sign people up to a direct debit.

I thought chugging was supposed to be illegal now., if not it should be.

I was really annoyed to be stopped outside a small M&S when doing food shopping and a tin rattler doing his thing in a conspicuous way and when that didn't work asking outright for a contribution. Since all the bad publicity surrounding charities per se and the sexual exploitation of underage people in third world countries by highly paid so called charity workers, I'm very selective who I donate to anyway. Quite honestly I want my money to go to help those who need it, not into a fat cat's pocket, how dare they cream off people's cash to pay extortionate salaries and don't give me that "but they have to pay that to get the best people" oh really, are some of those who have been abusing under age people "the best"

I live in a deprived area and we went through about a year of having them knock on the door 1/2 a week, always tea time/kids bed. If we didn't answer they would often just keep knocking. I do wonder if they do it so much in more affluent areas.
There was a chugger at the checkout one time and I told lied to her I already give to that charity, instantly she said "yes, but do you do the raffle?". I always ignore or just say no thanks now.

To be fair it was a small proportion of charity staff involved in the sex exploitation thing. It's not fair to assume that all the workers in the entire organisation are like that.