This really annoys me ... or am I a bad person?

[twiglett]

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No I agree. There was a very interesting article somewhere recently about the ones on the street. They are called chuggers (charity muggers) and you have to keep the direct debit up for over a year before the charity starts to see any of the money; up until then it will just be paying the company that employs the chuggers (indirectly, I would imagine, but that's the calculation). I'll see if I can find it.

Well that was easy. It's here

No you're not a grumbly old scrooge, or if you are I am. I refuse on principle to give ANYTHING at the front door of my own home.

Good for you Twiglett, I give when I want to and to causes I choose. These people pray on intimidation and guilt tactics. You are not a scrooge at all, in fact, anyone who does sign up a direct debit to one of these schemes is IMO a bit of a mug.

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I was in our local highstreet a few months ago, vastly pg waddling along, and no fewer thatn 7 chuggerts tried it on with me, worse still they were all in sight of one another along the street - so how on earth do they imagine I could have missed any of them (and vice versa) and suddenly changed my mind or donated to each of the seven.
Dyaknowaddimean?

When you spend every trip into town trying to escape these people, the last thing you need or want is to have them turn up on your doorstep. Giving to charity is a very personal thing. Chuggers turn the act of making donations into a cold business arrangement which they will personally gain from. It feels wrong.

I used to make a DD payment to a charity but I got so P'ed off when they kept asking for more...I asked them to stop asking for extra and I told them I would stop the DD. They didn't stop asking, so I stopped the DD!

Without wishing to sound sanctimonious, I don't mind. I think they are all desperate for money with all the suffering in the world. I give to Save The Children and recently doubled my donation because someone cold called me at home (I was meaning to for ages and ages but never got round to it, so it was actually easier to do it over the phone in the evening like that). I had a lovely bloke for the Red Cross and explained that I gave to Save The Children, I thought the Red Cross was a fantastic organisation (which I do) but for clarity and for easier reading of my bank statements I preferred to channel my donations for worldwide disasters to one charity. He was extremely polite (though clearly disappointed) and that was fine. The street people I just tell I give to STC and I've never had a difficult moment. Having said that, I really keep meaning to join amnesty and if someone called me and could organise it over the phone without my having to sign anything I would be delighted. I'm just very, very lazy!

I suppose they do come in useful when you've been meaning to do it and they touch a chord.

But think how much more money the charity would recieve if donations were given directly to them bypassing the greedy fundraisers.

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