Tuesday 3 April 2012

Street Fundraising VS The People

I am constantly hounded by street fundraisers in my local town, I have grown to resent their mere existence – and although I have an incredibly big heart when it comes to charity, I dislike being hassled and given the ‘hard sell’ in order to extract money out of me. Crossing the road was once the advisable thing to do when you saw a street fundraiser, you were safe then to go about your business – but these days street fundraisers have evolved to another strain of irritant that you don’t want near your skin in fear of contamination and the very fact that it will burn a hole in your pocket.

Like I said before, I have a big heart when it comes to charity, but it has to be on my terms. I don’t want to be forced into parting with my money – particularly when I know that charities these days ask for a direct debit to be set up and it will be taken straight from my account. I like to walk up to the (arguably ‘out-dated’) man with the collection box and put in the loose change that I can afford. Unfortunately, these are few and far between – now they have young and aesthetically pleasing (both male and female) street fundraisers approaching people with charm and whit. Regardless of whether you pretend to be in a phone call, or if you are talking to your friends, they are fearless and interrupt what you are doing to persuade you to set up a monthly transfer.

I am actually not against street fundraising – I think that if it is executed properly then it is a wonderful thing. I am against the fundraisers that do not leave you alone if you say no, or tell them that you simply cannot afford that monthly transfer. What really got to me was when I was walking through my local town and was hounded by a girl from an animal charity, not only did I tell her that I was not interested in setting up a direct debit, but I told her that I simply couldn’t afford to pay more money from my account each month – her response, ‘well if you eat less, you will spend less on your weekly shop. That way you will be able to afford to donate each month’ – suffice it to say, I ended the conversation with a hole in my lip because I was trying to chew my way out of the situation without being rude.

On another occasion, going back to about 2005, I was walking through my hometown with my ex-boyfriend and my brother, when a fundraiser outside Woolworths approached us. I kept my head down, trying to go unnoticed but the fundraiser gently grabbed my arm and stopped us. I felt guilty as we weren’t going to stop, when my ex said that “the trick is to simply confuse them, watch this… sorry mate, I’ve got no arms” – sure enough the guy stood there, looking at my ex, then back to me and back to my ex again, he was totally confused. So maybe this is the way forward. Maybe confusing the ‘lesser-spotted’, scratch that ‘common’ fundraiser is the best thing to do – it will leave them pondering for a few minutes while other potential victims manage to scurry by unscathed.

Fundraising is a huge thing to charities, without it you have no research, you have no funds to fight for the cause you stand for and you have no way of integrating the charity into the public eye – but I do believe that there should be something put in place to stop passers by from being hassled by a string of people asking for money. In the local high street there are fundraisers hassling not only those who are only just eligible for a current account, but also pensioners, and it appears to be a different charity every day – yet the local council do not appear to have a problem with the very fact that people are being bullied in to parting with their money, which in the current climate is increasingly hard to keep hold of. These days you cannot cross the road to get away from the intrusion and the guilt selling that is put upon you and there is no getting away from the other fundraising minion a few metres away.

The process has become an ugly one. Fundraisers are trained to sell the charities in which they work for. Fine, I get that, but so much money is spent on them being on the street and getting people to sign up, people just do not want to be hassled anymore – it is high time that charitable organisations realise this and go back to basics. This is what smaller charities do; they cut out the middleman and go direct the jewels that are going to bring them assets for the charity. I will write more on this in my next blog ‘GOOD THINGS COME IN SMALL PACKAGES, BETTER THINGS COME FROM SMALL CHARITIES’.


Signing off for now. Over and out.


Weez.

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