Charities Knocking on Doors

MarkBargain

It seems to me like mis-selling if a potential donor is unaware of the commission taken though, as the donor believes their £3 a month is going to charity X whereas in reality it is going into the pockets of the shareholders of company X for the first four years effectively.

It would be interesting to survey some of these chuggers and see how transparent they really are or whether (and how far) they are prepared to lie to get people to sign up.

I should add I am not anti-charity, as I give to charities of my choosing through their websites and by sponsoring people who raise money for various causes, I just hate the thought of companies creaming money off donors without their knowledge.

Pollycat

kezzygirl wrote: »

a few years ago I received a telephone call from the NSPCC asking me to sign up to a direct debit of £20 per month!!! We were struggling financially at the time, so I said no. So they said 'how about £10?'....and so it went on, down down until we reached £2.

I still said no. I donate to charity boxes in the supermarket, but dont like being pressurised. My nanna has just cancelled her direct debit to a charity as they sent a letter asking for more money.

I've been donating to a number of charities by DD (only a couple of quid per month) for many years.

I've written to them all and told them that if they write asking me to increase my DD or asking for one-off donations, I will cancel my DD.

I don't see why, just because you want to support a particular charity, they feel they can bombard you with guilt-tripping begging letters.

zagfles

MarkBargain wrote: »

It seems to me like mis-selling if a potential donor is unaware of the commission taken though, as the donor believes their £3 a month is going to charity X whereas in reality it is going into the pockets of the shareholders of company X for the first four years effectively.

It would be interesting to survey some of these chuggers and see how transparent they really are or whether (and how far) they are prepared to lie to get people to sign up.

I should add I am not anti-charity, as I give to charities of my choosing through their websites and by sponsoring people who raise money for various causes, I just hate the thought of companies creaming money off donors without their knowledge.

Exactly - as should any MSE'er. Like with anything else - you want value for money.

Looking at the accounts in the charities annual reports is interesting. They aren't usually hard to read, there's generally a line in the accounts stating "voluntary income" (ie donors, as opposed to retail operations etc), and later there's a line giving the cost of generating the voluntary income.

Compare the two. With some charties it's staggering, the cost of generating voluntary income is around 40% with some charities! So about 40p of every £1 donated goes in costs!

I think this is something people should look at when deciding which charity to donate to. Perhaps see if there's a similar charity with lower % costs. It will probably also mean you're less likely to get chased to up your donations, get sent junk mail gifts etc, because they spend their money on their cause rather than trying to get you to donate more.

Littlestars_2

I seem to get the collection bags all the time but what is worst is seeing people fill these up and leave them outside and laying there for a week as no one bothers to collect them. Much easier giving direct to a charity shop or donating money to them.

aileth

Yes, this has become an increasing problem in our area. I was once in the kitchen and saw a van pull up and deploy about 20 chuggers in yellow jackets, which all dispersed and the van drove off. 2 minutes later, knock knock.

They always seem to come at tea time, 5-7 pm, and we have even had one at 9.30 pm!!

We've simply detached our doorbell and ignore them. If I want to donate to charity, I will do it off my own back direct to the charity and not give a single penny to these people. Some of them use very aggressive sales tactics, I had one who put his foot in the door to stop it from closing and then kept questioning whether I was home alone (!!)

As for other unwanted callers, Betterware is my nemesis. Thankfully the distributor has stopped delivering to us since we held his catalogue for ransom in the window by our front door

gropinginthedark

My son has just received several letters from credit card companies, mobile phone companies etc to which he has allegedly signed up. All fraudulent. We were trying to work out where the crooks got the information. "Who knows your bank sort code and number?" I asked, answer "Only my boss so he can pay me". I took a close look at his bank statement. "What's this £5 direct debit to the Heart Foundation a few days ago?".

Well is it a coincidence that he'd signed up to a chugger and not long afterwards his personal data was being used to commit fraudulent transactions? Who can say, but it does seem to me that giving name address, bank details and signature to a complete stranger is a high risk strategy and I don't think any responsible charity should be operating that way.

The chuggers are not working out of altruism, they get paid and are doing this as an alternative to unemployment. Are those the individuals to trust with your personal information? My understanding is that although the chuggers might "only" get 20% of your donation, there's some kind of arrangement such that they often get that as the entire sum of the first few payments (by which time you may have cancelled the DD so the charity ends up with nothing).
A secondary issue I fell foul of a few years ago is that if you disclose a phone number to them that will get sold on to other charities so you'll get unsolicited begging calls from them too.

My advice: make charitable donations direct to local charities you know something about, visibly have a positive impact in your community and that you have chosen to support. Cut out the middleman, cut out the national charities with plush London headquarters, highly paid executives, massive advertising budgets. Do some REAL good.

Pollycat

gropinginthedark wrote: »

My son has just received several letters from credit card companies, mobile phone companies etc to which he has allegedly signed up. All fraudulent. We were trying to work out where the crooks got the information. "Who knows your bank sort code and number?" I asked, answer "Only my boss so he can pay me". I took a close look at his bank statement. "What's this £5 direct debit to the Heart Foundation a few days ago?".

Well is it a coincidence that he'd signed up to a chugger and not long afterwards his personal data was being used to commit fraudulent transactions? Who can say, but it does seem to me that giving name address, bank details and signature to a complete stranger is a high risk strategy and I don't think any responsible charity should be operating that way.

The chuggers are not working out of altruism, they get paid and are doing this as an alternative to unemployment. Are those the individuals to trust with your personal information? My understanding is that although the chuggers might "only" get 20% of your donation, there's some kind of arrangement such that they often get that as the entire sum of the first few payments (by which time you may have cancelled the DD so the charity ends up with nothing).
A secondary issue I fell foul of a few years ago is that if you disclose a phone number to them that will get sold on to other charities so you'll get unsolicited begging calls from them too.

My advice: make charitable donations direct to local charities you know something about, visibly have a positive impact in your community and that you have chosen to support. Cut out the middleman, cut out the national charities with plush London headquarters, highly paid executives, massive advertising budgets. Do some REAL good.

Has your son been in contact with the charity concerned to let them know about this?

Hope your son takes your advice in the last paragraph.

Me?
I donate to a few charities by DD (and have done so for over 15 years).

If anyone stops me in the high street and asks if I have a few minutes to chat, I always say 'only if you're not going to ask me to give you personal & financial details'.

Deep_In_Debt

I get the charity door knockers frequently. I'm always polite but tell them I'm not interested.

I support a lot of small local charities where I know that the money is actually going to the charity.

My mum did some admin volunteering at the RSPCA at their then new plush offices a few years back. She left after a couple days as she got fed up with hearing about the company cars that were wanted, business expenses etc.

I adopted a couple of cats from my local RSPCA rescue centre 12 years ago (I still have the old ladies!) and clearly the money doesn't filter down to where it's needed.

gropinginthedark

Pollycat wrote: »

Has your son been in contact with the charity concerned to let them know about this?

Well we can't prove anything, it could be pure coincidence. But he's certainly learnt a lesson - having to contact the various companies involved and the police to get a crime reference number to give to those companies. Example, Vodaphone: 2 year contract at £50+ a month, my guess is they've handed out an iPhone without making adequate identity checks.

gropinginthedark

knightstyle wrote: »

These companies receive a big commission for everyone who signs, the Heart Foundation pays £154. So if you do a DD for £3 a month the first four years payments goes to this private company!

So if I were to cancel after the first payment does that mean BHF still have to pay up making a loss to them of £151?