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.

YANBU @DavAtTheCampaignForMoreBankHolidays it does my head in. It's in most shops you go in now. Savers do it too. Every time! I shop in there 1-2 times a week, and every time, first I get, 'are you OK for perfume and batteries?' and then when I go to pay, I get a red button and a green button. 'Green to donate 20p to charity' they say. They don't say 'red to NOT donate,' which leads (some) people into thinking they have to donate. I just press red.

Fucking sick of it I am. And on top of this, you have some grabby twat in the foyer of Tesco, Morrisons, or Sainsburys (at least half the time you go in,) trying to get you to give your bank details to sign up to the charity they are working for. I just ignore them. #Sorrynotsorry I am sick of it now

This pisses me off massively. I always ask the staff if the shop matches the donation and they don't in which case I refuse. Same as the food bank donation points. Do any of the shops match what the customers donate?

The only one I do do is the Ronald McDonald houses as McDonald's actually donate a lot of money themselves.

You know what boils my nads, the fact that they apparently offset it against profits as a "charitable donation". So essentially a tax dodge.

No I will not round it up to reduce your tax bill, you absolute bstrds.

Well that's a lovely attitude, isn't it! I'm sure you also fund very hardworking teachers & nurses, but there are still charities that help various education & medical conditions with research & support.

Anyhooooo, I don't donate at the till because it's wildly tax inefficient. We do donate a substantial amount to the Trussell Trust on a monthly basis, which is both tax deductible to us and a direct replacement for the tax rate we feel we SHOULD be paying to ensure families working full time jobs - sometimes 2 jobs - can keep everyone fed. Clearly the polar opposite of how Bumblebee feels about how society should work, but there's room for many different opinions.

For anyone buying at a supermarket to put in the food bank donation trolley - I'd highly recommend switching to donating straight to a food bank charity direct. Even if you don't do a tax return to reduce your taxable pay, you'd be cutting out the profit to the supermarket in the shelf price, as the charity can buy direct from food wholesaler at far less inflated prices, so more money ends up as food in the hands of those who need it.

YANBU it grinds my gears too 😒 especially when there's queues in the shop.

Or sweetens it, depending on your take

I have never in my life done this and I never will. Only tips I've ever given are waiting staff and taxis.

The practice that grinds my gears is the food bank trolleys in the supermarkets after the registers.

So the supermarket look like they are doing something for the charity, but the likes of you and me are paying the supermarkets full price for items being placed in those food bank trolleys!

I was overcharged in a UK charity shop by £7.90 AFTER i"d already spent £34. Didn't realise and left.
I went back in after calculations..🤔
Pointed out their mistake and was met with " oh sorry, but I can't work the till properly for refunds without the manager. . Perhaps you'd like to donate the £7.90?"
No I wouldn't. Refund please. I got it.

Literally every shop from Asda to Mc Donald’s to boots now do this . It’s ridiculous

I think charities should vet the companies they use for canvassing better. I’ve had some serious misogynistic s**t from the blokes that stop you in the street in the past. Getting referred to as ‘mum,’ asked personal questions, trying to shake hands etc It’s hard to explain, but it’s unpleasant and mildly intimidating. I won’t stop anymore. I think if they genuinely cared about donations they would have a collection tin (as I’d happily give loose change) but they just want you to sign up to direct debits.

I also have a friend who was a bit vulnerable who was convinced to ‘make out’ with a charity canvasser in the early 2000. Hopefully that sort of thing doesn’t go on nowadays.

I think Ocado do. If you add a food bank donation to your online basket they will match it.

I’ve found, through talking to community groups, schemes like the Coop one work best. On the app you select what local group you want to support and they get a share of their local communities fund.

John Lewis do something similar but I think it’s mostly bigger charities. I think I chose SANDS. I think something like that is much better where if I choose to spend my money at a certain shop then they donate on my behalf rather than asking additional money from the customer and getting the tax relief as people have said and taking the credit.

This is why it’s better to use Cooperatives and Building Societies where possible.

I went into a cafe yesterday where you queue up and order. I waited in line and then ordered two coffees. I was asked at the till whether I wanted to leave a tip. I had to physically press no before I could pay. What service exactly was I supposed to be tipping for? I did all the work myself ffs!!

Where did this tricky little racket come from..Either the good old USA, or from.some bright young, slimey thing in marketing. Trying to gallop up to being a top manager.

It is up to the individual, if they wish to make a charitable donation but not through Tesco.

Also may be being used to boost Tesco' cash flow..An interest free loan?
Poor show Tesco. Shame on you!!
Scheme has backfired.
Total lack.of integrity???

You know in the way Energy Companies 'used to have massive cash surpluses some years ago. Due to not refunding or decreasing excess monthly dd payments on cusomers already sizeable account balances.

Tut Tut Tut

You have lost my goodwill.

I’d rather choose the charity and donate in a way that allows them to claim gift aid.

I'm amazed to read that this is a thing!

The closest I've come to such a request is when I do my online grocery shopping and get asked if I want to give £1 to charity. I never tick that box, as I don't know which charity is involved.

If I'm in a shop, paying cash, and the amount is (say) £9.90, I may well hand over a tenner and tell the cashier to put the change in the charity box. But I've never been actually asked to do this!

Is it just that I don't get out much? Or is this a thing that mostly happens in certain places, e.g. big cities? (I live in a small town in south-east England.)

It depends what charity, as someone who has worked in the charity sector I am very selective about who I support. I prefer to support my local charities who use as much of my donation as possible for the actual cause and don’t have the budget to advertise. I abhor large fund-holding charities that have millions in the bank and have head offices in expensive postcodes (like London) and pay huge salaries to staff. Having worked for a charity that offered money to other causes (not having a cause of their own as it was a radio station) I was aware that some of these big charities have a team of people sniffing out organisations that will grant money. I used to ask for their accounts - anything less than 75p in the pound that is going to the actual cause and I’m out. Yes, RSPCA (National not local branches), Guide Dogs for the Blind and Clic Sargeant - I’m talking to you as an example. Ask me to support a local a school running a breakfast club for children who don’t get breakfast at home and I’m all over it. Same for Hospices who are dramatically under-funded and provide such an essential service. Rant over.

If shaking coins in tins is now banned outside shops then why are shops now pressuring us when we pay?
It's vulnerable people who I feel the most sorry for and whom are most likely to press yes to feel they can promptly leave.

The USA is the worst. The lady at the airport was horrified when i awnsered the question "woud you like to give a dollar to the troops" with "no thanks, they are not my troops and i dont support the majority of what your army has done in the last 20 years"

She looked like she might combust.

It's the same with the Big Issue now. Many people who buy one (and let's face it, if it were sitting on the shelf in WHS without any 'good cause' connection, how many of those would ever consider buying it on its own strengths?) assume that all sellers are still homeless people, or those who have recently left homelessness and are getting themselves established.

Not a bit of it. The criteria for being allowed to sell the BI are now pretty much 'if you want to earn money by selling it, you can'. Many sellers now - even in smaller towns - are trafficked to the UK by gangmasters and made to sell the BI on a specific patch. A suspiciously high proportion of sellers have foreign (usually East European) accents - and it isn't because they had already moved here and then fell on hard times, which would very much be in the spirit of the scheme, but because they are specifically brought over here to sell it.

It's purely treated as (exploitative) business now. Genuine homeless people don't get a look-in - they're probably frightened away by the gangmasters if they try to become a seller in what could be a profitable pitch near where they stay.

I always say No now, as by buying the BI, you're effectively doing the same thing as giving money direct to beggars - which, as has been said, is what charities always strongly warn you not to do.

Could the shareholders not... you know... give plenty of their own money to the charities that they passionately support?

And then leave business to function as business, and allow other people to make their own free charitable giving decisions independently, without being urged, cajoled or tricked into giving to their favourites?

I find GOSH a bit of a mystery, to be honest. Yes, of course, on the face of it, they are a benevolent charity that supports sick children, so how could you quibble at that?

But aren't they also an NHS hospital? Do they not get a shedload of financing from the NHS for a lot of the work that they do?

They stopped me outside Home Bargains the other day - in my town in the Midlands - and said something about having a new project for which they're hoping to raise £300m. Just on one new initiative - so they're obviously already confident of getting a phenomenally high income and are planning with it in mind, in spite of the pleas that they desperately need your few quid every month.

I may be being unfair, but they also seem to want to promote themselves as the only charity doing what they do. Where I live, a lot of people give charitably to Birmingham Children's Hospital, for extra projects and equipment that are not funded by the NHS. It seemed kind of cheeky for a London-based charity to seek to extend its reach so much, at the obvious expense of other similar regional charities doing similar work elsewhere.