To not give a minimum of a fiver to charity?

[OnePound]

Bought something in New Look earlier, it cost £11. Haven't bought new clothes in over 12 months.

Got to the till, and the gist went like this:

Cashier: We're raising money for a local children's charity, and asking all the customers if they could donate something towards it today, would you like to donate?
Me: Yeah sure.
Her: How much would you like to donate today?
Me: Erm, a pound?
Her: We do have a variety of options available for people to donate, £5, £10, £15, £20? How much would you like?
Me: A pound?
Her: Oh okay, so just a pound?
Me: Yes?
Her: Okay then, so that's just £12 in total then please.

So I paid and off I went. But I was actually quite annoyed at her pushy attitude to try to make me donate more than that. I have no idea what the charity was actually for, other than it was "a local children's charity", there was no posters up or anything advertising the name of it or what it does. I'm not against children or charity, I've fundraised for Winston's Wish in the past, and have a monthly direct debit of £5 to the National Deaf Children's Charity (though that's my only regular charity donation). But since when did shops like New Look start to randomly ambush you for charity donations at the tills?!

I don't mind giving a quid or two, but surely a big company like that could raise awareness of a charity by putting their details up in store, or fundraise for them by donating a portion of their profits towards it? Not try to talk customers into donating at least a fiver at the tills?

A starting donation of £5? And how is that going to end if you feel obliged do the same at Tesco and the local garage if they all start doing it?

I go shopping to buy stuff I need I don't expect to be waylaid by chuggers on the till asking me for charity donations.

They're there to operate the till not put people under pressure like that, completely unacceptable.

The answer for me is to have a rule I follow. And that is that I donate to chosen charities after reflection.
That means I never give to charities on the spur of the moment. I do look out for musical performers at Christmas collections so they don't fall into my spur of the moment category!

I hate the round up at the till thing at Tesco. Normally I’d do it, but I’m on a really tight budget at the moment. But there’s always a picture of a cute smiling child that tugs at my heart strings. I feel guilty.

I think a £1 is plenty, but I would like online grocery shops to give you the change to donate food to a food bank.

*chance

I never do it as I assume it's some kind of PR tax right off thing!

I was asked to make a donation at the cash desk in works, I said yes ok and was told it was a fiver, it was more than I owed for the goods I bought, I declined, it used to be asked by charity collectors outside on the pavement but now you can't even dodge them in the shops, I've had people knocking at the door collecting for charity and asking for my bank details, I donate to local charities, they don't stalk you.

I always say that the charities I wish to support is already sorted out (which is true)

And the trouble with this "just a fiver" is that it doesn't stop at that; if they ask for your details (and they will) you'll soon be deluged with messages about increasing it

I always round up at McDonald's but all their money goes to the McDonald's Houses at hospitals which are a terrific thing. They weren't around when my daughter and I had to spend a month in Guys

I wonder if this makes their cashflow/turnover figures look better?

After all, with all those five pounds plus going through their tills, they'd be able to say 'Our incoming is x thousand higher' not mentioning that it then comes out further down the rows as the charity stuff

Would also be interesting to see what charity, what charity number and so on it is.

I do look out for musical performers at Christmas collections

I will always pop something in the box for junior musical performers in the interests of encouraging them in a worthwhile hobby!

Our cancer research shop did this last week to my DD2 who is 10yo with SEN practicing the life skills she learns at school. To make it worse the manager was training up a new volunteer on the till and prompted her through the script. They even had a notepad next to the till with the 50p and initials writen down as a tally of who was most successful.
I stepped in and explained DD was using her own money so wouldn't be and asked where the rest of the money was going to if the 50p's were "for cancer". They got very defensve and aborted the 50p training. Guess DD2 gained a new life skill in not falling for these pressure donations.

YABU and your title is slightly misleading. You didn’t HAVE to give a fiver. You were asked to, you declined and gave a pound. Complete non event.

YANBU I never donate it's such a bloody cheek and probably just a way for these billion pound companies to save on some charity tax scheme.

I already pay directly to the charities I want to support. I don’t donate to causes on the fly, ever.

I always just say no to these check out requests, but it kind of leaves me with a bad feeling and spoils the experience of buying something new.
I give to the charities I want to give to

It's the same if you donate to charity. I used to donate to age uk but they kept ringing me asking to increase it or make a one off extra payment so I stopped it altogether.

A cold caller rang up once and asked if I wanted to donate to charity. I said "no thank you, because I'm not working at the moment" (which was true) and I had a couple of monthly direct debits to charity already.
He said "what about just £10/month"
No
What about £5
No
He literally kept on, until he said what about £1? I could have afforded £1/month but on principle I declined because he was so annoying.
I give to another small charity that calls me probably monthly. When I was on furlough I said I was unable to donate that month and they were fine about it. They are never pushy if I say I'm not in a position to donate but I often buy lottery tickets or make donations.

Yes, very annoying. Another similar thing is when someone asks for a 'voluntary donation' of £5/10 etc, eg for parking at an event, where they stop each car and charge them £5. That's called a parking fee.

Ridiculous!

@Ohmnomnom

I'm sure I saw a tiktok video about how big businesses are doing this to decrease the amount of tax they pay.

It would make no difference whatsoever. They are collecting money on behalf of the charity and passing it on, so it would be entirely outside their own accounts and thus ignored for the purposes of calculating corporation tax.

Donate directly not through businesses. I hate schools pushing for charity donations too.

I would have just said "no" as I do when paying at a restaurant and they ask if you want to add further money on to your bill, but I do think it is poor that they try and embarrass people into giving.

As a pp, I don't mind the McD's machines asking you as
a) it's a machine
b) it is clear what the charity is, and they are a good cause
c) they are only asking you to round up to the next pound.