The selfishness of chuggers
A CHARITY MUGGER WAS JUSTIFYING his line of work in Friday's Guardian. It raised my hackles.
The author argued that chuggers (aka 'face-to-face fundraisers') are a force for good. And insofar as they raise money for particular charities, they are.
But chuggers make people cross. Haranguing passers-by in the street or interrupting them at home is rude and inconsiderate. It just is, however worthy the motive.
This clearly doesn't bother the charities that employ them, and I'm told the monetary returns are good. But chuggers undeniably run the risk of alienating the public from the entire charitable sector.
Through chuggers, charities become associated with anti-social behaviour. That creates bad feeling and cynicism. And if anyone had the energy to research it, it wouldn't surprise me at all to find that (in a weird, Freakonomics kind of way), chuggers do the sector more harm than good. For every donation they receieve, many more people might be put off giving for good.
9 comments:
Hmmm. Hardly any chuggers are paid commission anymore so I wonder which agency it was.
It's not like the wages are the only cost either. What a load of tosh.
There is a huge difference between what's described in that article and face-to-face street fundraising (god, I really hate the word "chugging"). I've done the same job as that in the past, for a wildlife trust. There's no rudeness, no aggravation - did you not see the bit where he says he always gives people some information to go away and read for a few days? When I did it I was absolutely forbidden from signing anyone up immediately, because we wanted to make sure that it was only people who really wanted to join rather than anyone feeling pressured.
Far from damaging the image of the charity I worked for, I am absolutely certain that I did it a huge amount of good. Even most of those who couldn't afford to sign up were often extremely generous in their praise and their thanks for letting them know about it.
Have we really become this cynical as a nation, that even those say that they want people to give more decry anything that interrupts their cosy little home for a few seconds? Why not just disconnect your doorbell, lock the door, and shut yourself away. God forbid you should ever have to talk to another human being.
Simon I don't think you read the post. They're not talking about the one person you engage with. They're talking about the 50 who see you and think "Oh f*ck I just want to get my lunch/eat supper in peace!" And they're not talking about the one charity you were working for. They're talking about the 170,000 others who get the same bad rap as you.
From the Institute of Fundraising website (FAQ section): http://www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk/
"The Institute of Fundraising does not recommend the payment of commission to fundraisers. It is best to agree a contract between a charity and the fundraiser, including details of work to be undertaken and a fixed fee. For more information, read the Code, ’Payment of fundraisers on a commission basis'. The Institute produces model forms of agreement which can be used as the basis of a contract, click here and see the directory of consultants for a list of consultants."
There are a number of very good (and frequently heated!) arguments against commission-based FR on many historic threads on the www.fundraising.co.uk forum as well.
On a personal note - As Anon 2 said, it's bad enough having to run a gauntlet in the street when all I want is my lunchtime sandwich on a busy work day when my mind is on a million other work-related things. My home is my castle. If I could build a moat around it and fill it with crocodiles, I would. Unfortunately the local council won't let me. This means that any fundraiser who knocks on my door and makes me rush round "Where did I put my [expletive] keys?" will get polite but extremely short shrift, and the organisation would get an equally polite but extremely strongly-worded letter of complaint.
I've never met anyone who likes chuggers apart from chuggers themselves, and the people who employ them. Why haven't these people noticed that the world hates them?
A little birdie told me that IG hires chuggers as volunteers. True or False? If true, where's the love?
OK anonymous - you're right. We are on the lookout for chuggers to take on as interns.
But we want to hire these people to save them from the miserableness of their current occupation - to rescue them from the streets.
We know chugging is a rubbish job, and we're offering an incentive to give it up. We are truly very nice people.
Aha!
In which case I fully commend you for it. It's a nightmare for an ex-chugger to get a 'real' job (as I've seen many, many times) in the sector so jolly well done.
Now I'm sure Chuggers do earn their fair share of revenue for Charities but my objection to it is intrusiveness of their techniques. I will decide when I want to donate to charity, and it certainly won't be in the middle of the local high street in my lunch hour and I'm sure many people feel the same.
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