Would you like to round up to £1? No I fucking wouldnt.

[DavAtTheCampaignForMoreBankHolidays]

I cant be the only one who is getting increasingly pissed off at being asked to donate 20p everytine I pay for something?

The recent one in a charity shop was being asked to round up to the nearest pound AND then being asked to donate 25p. In fact, it wasnt even asked, it was "shall I round it up?" and "press green to say yes".

I always end up feeling really tight but apart from the fact that it would cost a fortune if I gave a donation every time I was asked, I really resent that businesses get tax relief for this whilst also bragging that they donated £x to charity.

This 👆

I only ever do it in charity shops. I hate it in other contexts

I work in fundraising and the best way to donate is to pay it direct to the charity, ideally online to minimise processing costs/staff time. CAF Bank is good too.

There are a few different models for customer donations via corporations.

A) Schmooze model: Named charity of the month/year at the till. Gets a cheque at the end of the period. It usually takes a lot of networking and staff time from the charity to get nominated. Not an open process.

B) Tiny grant model: Consumer gets to choose 1 of X amount of charities, the charities get £500/1000/1500 depending on amounts of plastic coins/app choice. Charities have to apply for this process, it's considered a grant but you have no idea how much you may get in return. Think Tesco, Co-op.

C) The tax avoiding model: Company sets up their own grant-giving charity. Your donation becomes a donation from the company to their own charity. The charity may or may not donate much to actual charities. Often charities have to apply for grants, this may be an open or closed process with lots of foggy unpublished details. E.g. how much they'll give, how often they give, application open and closing dates, how to apply at all. Big barrier is usually needing an employee to nominate you. This is usually office staff, not shop floor staff because they're not even told about it or have better things to do.

D) The tax avoiding PayPal model: Company sets up its own charity. Your donation becomes a donation from the company to their own charity. FakeCharity pays out the exact amount to chosen charity after 1-3 months. Charities have to register to be on the list of available charities to donate to, which is a pretty complicated and long process when they only get a tenner a year if they're lucky. Open process but a hassle.

Edit:
E) The 'it's a con' model. Company sets up it's own charity. Charity does whatever the hell it likes. Gatwick's nominated charity is the Gatwick Travelcare charity 😂 They're using it to pay to "help over 2,000 passengers with travel-related problems each year" like passport and missed flights... You know, the kind of thing that the airport should pay for!

I don't mind doing this as its a way to give to charity without giving your details so they hound you. I either donated or raised money for a few charities in the past and was subject to endless calls, emails, letters forever after until I moved house and changed my number and email. I am now very cagey about giving them my details because of that.

I say no on principle. I could be saving all those 20p and making a donation of my own to my chosen charity at the end of the year.

Easy there @GenieGenealogy.did my post say it should be “staffed by volunteers”?? No it did not … but i can choose the donation of my choice at the time of my choosing while being informed about the salaries of their administration which can be in the six figures

if you Genie are content to donate to charities who hundreds of thousands of dollars of raised funds are used for paid salaries then donate.
Your sarcasm is unnecessary and your accusation unfounded. No one said volunteers

When I collected a prescription at the chemist this week the chip and pin machine flashed up asking for a donation to charity. No idea who the charity was as there was no information anywhere. Things like that piss me off so I definitely won’t be donating 😡

They can remove the charitable donations only if they also bring your payment to the company into tax too. So it’s a net nothing for tax… there isn’t super deductions for charitable giving here like there is in the USA.

The only place I do is Macdonalds when using the self pay machines.

Someone posted on here sometime ago that being able to stay in a Ronald Ma Donald house whilst their child was receiving hospital treatment was an absolute godsend, and she urged everyone to round up their spend. What she said really really struck a chord with me and never having done so before I’ve done it ever since.
There are plenty of charities I wouldn’t give a penny to, especially when I’m being asked to do so or have a collecting box thrust at me, but I’m happy to let Ronald Macdonald have my change, assuming of course that it does actually filter in the charity’s account.

@Thissickbeat they were wonderful when my nephew was in ICU. His parents could afford a hotel but not having to sort that and being so close to the hospital (they slept in shifts) when DN was so poorly was so helpful at a horrible time. They have of course donated to Ronald McDonald house since and I think will always be grateful.

They can remove the charitable donations (that customers make!) from their profits.

Obviously they do because they’re not keeping the money! Why would they pay tax on money they’re collecting for a charity?

It’s awful. Part of our drip drip drip money loss. When you have charity roundups in shops, parking charges in the car parks that used to be free, it’s little wonder people just use Amazon. And then add in subscription based stuff and you are just haemorrhaging money.

About 15 years ago there was an almighty stink about charities signing up people for a monthly 'donation' then calling to bully them for a greater 'donation'. This particularly was aimed at older people and there were older people who were found to be 'donating' vast amounts each month to these scammers and impairing their own standard of living. There were/are companies who call saying they're representing a particular charity but then sell vulnerable contacts' details to other charities.

I always refuse……..both of us make charitable donations to Air Ambulance, Alzheimer’s UK, and RNLI as well as being members of the RBL and IMO that’s enough. Add the occasional raffle tickets purchased at social events too and we are gifting quite a lot of money annually.

I just press no. The worse for me is when people stand collecting for whatever charity (usually a local football team), at the exit doors in super markets with their buckets and hold them up to you while you try to squeeze past. I already donate monthly and rarely carry cash.

You’ve got this wrong, OP.

They are doing it to boost their ESG reporting for investors. Nothing to do with reducing profits or tax.

It’s a good thing. It is the modern equivalent of having a charity loose change pot next to the till.

Charities have been hit massively by the huge reduction of cash in our society with the move to electronic payments.

I recently met one of the founders of Pennies. This is the fintech charity that many retailers use to administer their rounding up donations. They do great work and it’s a fantastic idea.

Take a look at their website to see the impact that these micro donations, as they are called, has had….

https://pennies.org.uk/about-us/our-impact/

I have a simple reply. "no thanks - I work for a charity" and that seems to satisfy everyone. (& yes it was true until I retired a couple of months back)

It’s too much.

Bills, food, public services are going up. Wages are stagnant. And now charities wanting more.

How about the rich give more. Their wages are going up lovely.

This is exactly why i don't in major retailers. 'They' then give a donation which is really from the customers.

My other pet hate is when you are asked to donate to 'charity' but there is absolutely no information about what charity it is.

Agreed.

I also hate restaurants where they hand you a card machine to pay and it asks you to put in a tip while they stand over you. We aren't American, you get paid to do that job (and its always places when its been the bare minimum done too, like they basically just brought a plate and annoyingly waited to asked if your foods ok when you have a mouthful like a chipmunk).

We can't afford to eat out anymore (use to regular but cannot afford it since COVID) as it is. Certainly don't have enough to be giving extra money away like Oprah on the odd special occasion we do manage to afford it.

We are in a cost of living crisis, why are we expected to help profiting business give to charity or pay their employees.

I'm fed up with it.

I have round up to a pound on all my spending into my savings, and save loads a year this way - it adds up very quickly.

Omg who was that? Just so I don't donate to them, the cfs!

Shareholders expect big companies to do this sort of thing now - using their systems and resources to benefit charities is just one of the ways that profitable companies are expected to “give something back” - it’s reported publicly and a lot of investors will not invest in a company that doesn’t do it.

Same

I knew someone who used it when their child had cancer.

It's one of the few I regularly do round up/tip on or put all my loose change in their collection boxes.

Giving to charity is a good thing. I don’t resent it at all.