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’.
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