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.

Also the result of some of this fundraising in the charity sector are the news programmes being stuffed with stories which are "a report published today by charity X says.."

The area I used to work in central London was a minefield of chuggers and annoying people trying to ask you where you get your hair done, so spent years dodging loads of them every lunchtime

The trick is to speed up when walking past them, purposely giving them a wide berth and looking the other way. If you have an umbrella up then even better, just angle it towards them to block them out.

If any of them spoke to me I'd just say a polite but firm no thank you, keep repeating that if necessary or said that I didn't have time and keep walking at exactly the same fast pace. No slowing down or stopping. It just completely stops them being able to engage you in conversation.

I hate them, they can be very intimidating and aggressive. Thankfully for now the ones in my local town have been removed following complaints for exactly this. As for the door knockers, we got fed up with them coming round late in the evenings so we got a sticker off eBay that says no charities, religious groups etc etc it seems to have don’t the job.

It's bad enough when they're swarming all over the high street,but now they've started appearing in the actual shopping mall,and at the doorways of shops. They bloody piss me off big time,with their 'Hi,I'm you're new best friend' tactics. I already have a (modest) direct debit set up with the charity of my choice,which I did not arrange via some random person in the street! I am not well off as I can't work due to disability and chronic ill health,and my disability is apparent to the vast majority of people. Yet still they approach me. Every bloody time. Are they told during their training that 'Disabled person = unlimited amounts of cash'?.

When they were a relatively new thing, I signed up for a small ddebit for a charity for the blind. Chugger wanted my phone number - I said no, didn't want anyone ringing me - and my age, which I said no to since not relevant and none of their business.
Chap said OK.

Some days later I had a letter from the charity, saying that they were 'unable' to process my 'application" without this information! The fucking cheek of it - anyone would think I was asking them for money.

The letter went in the bin, and needless to say the money came out of my account anyway.
I've had nothing to do with chuggers since.

Ugh they are a pain. Used to work in Covent Garden and couldn't leave my office without being accosted by them. Eventually took to responding with "no thanks, i don't like children/the elderly/disabled people/animals".
Obvs not true but very satisfying to see the occasional look of shock on their faces.

I'm surprised there's any left over for the actual cause though

With some of the industry - and it is an industry - I find myself wondering just how much that matters. Granted there are the Charity Commissioners to satisfy, for all the good they are, but money buys a lot of clever accountants as the likes of Camila Batmanghelidjh from the Kids Company doubtless discovered

Well kids company is an interesting one but they were solvent until they lost government funding. Then they instantly became not solvent. The reason they lost gov funding was that they were basically handing out cash to beneficiaries in lieu of doing effective interventions. It wasn’t accounting fraud ( ie no clever accounting required) Cash in envelopes is bookable as a programme cost if that’s your model ( and a lot of charities effectively do that) . Which is why it’s really important to understand what the model is because they vary hugely. I’m not defending KC but I think it all got a bit ‘emporers new clothes’ / group think Re CB. Lessons learned all round.

I just tell them I'm under 18 so they can't talk to me .

I think it all got a bit ‘emporers new clothes’ / group think Re CB

You're not kidding I also agree on your several points about the organisation, but the overall point seems to be that abuses are all too easy unless there's constant oversight - and I admit to concerns over the real effectiveness of the Charity Commissioners