Should I or shouldn't I donate?

Scottie_uk · August 2009

A guy comes to the door from the Red Cross. He puts across a very convicing argument about the good work they do then asks if I am prepared to donate a minimum of ?8.50 a month out of my wages.

I don't like being put on the spot like that, plus I don't like giving my Bank details to somebody that just shows up at your door. I told the guy to come back when I have had time to think about it.

So should I or should I not when he comes back??

psj3809 · August 2009

I have quite a few people like that who come round, had a guy last week collecting money for the blind. I already donate every month to an animal charity. In my past i donated to cancer research monthly , its difficult as there are so many and you do want to donate to them but i prefer to put some money in one of the boxes when i see someone in town. I always do that as the good souls stand there all day collecting money for charity so i hate to walk past them and ignore them like theyre a Big Issue seller or something.

I think 99% of these are legit, i'm sure there must be one dodgy bloke who goes round collecting money who might not be legit but i'm sure hes alright.

Cancer Research/Red Cross are two of my favourites but i personally prefer to put in money when i see someone in town, if i'm skint i cant , if i have some money i always donate. Difficult one though

NickH · August 2009

I never give money to people who go door-to-door - support charities through their website instead so you know your donation's going to them. It's piss easy to fake an official-looking ID card these days - would you know off-hand what a Red Cross ID card is meant to look like? Cancer Research? WWF?

joefish · August 2009

I won't do it like this. If I have money to donate, I'll make a one-off donation. Some charities go as far as to pay professional collectors, which annoys me. Most are volunteers, though even then they're organised by not-for-profit agencies. I think it's the NSPCC that has a bad reputation for harrassing its subscription payers unremittingly to increase their amounts, but I'll have no part of it.

As for which one to give to, give to whichever you take an interest in - don't make it a guilt-trip about the others. You're just one of many, so there will always be someone else giving something to the charity you're not giving to.

I particularly don't like the phrase "prepared to donate a minimum of ?8.50 a month" - setting a minimum should immediately set alarm bells ringing. Why a minimum? Is this guy on a commission? If you say you can only afford a fiver, will he walk away or just backpedal? Go to their respective websites, and see how to donate.

Scottie_uk · August 2009

That is very true Nick.

I thinking that if a tin shaker walked up to me in the street and said, "give me ?104 pounds and me or any of my fellow collegues from this charity will not shake a tin at you for another 12 months", you probably tell him where to stick it right?

Still I do beleive the red cross do good work. An interestig thing is that the bloke at the door said you can donate upwards of ?8.50 a month, but most people round it up to 10.

However, on the website the Red Cross allow donations of ?2, ?3, ?5, ?8 or an amount of your choice. I know this is probbly a drive to get a bit more money in the pot, but its a bit missleading isn't it. It has made me less inclined now. I think if he comes back I will talk this over with him.

Dingbat · August 2009

It is wise to stay well clear of both the door to door collectors and also the street collectors who want you to sign up for monthly donations. The main reason is that they earn more an hour than most people with 9 to 5 jobs and that money has to come from somewhere. The first thing to be clear about with any charity donations, is how much from each pound you give will actually go into the charity fund. In most cases it will only be about 1 pence, the rest will go on admin and paying the street collectors. Also I have been told that there are very few charities that are actually allowed to go door to door and that if you invite them into the house and sign up, you are not allowed by law to pull out of the agreement untill at least one payment has been taken. By all means give to the needy, putting a little back to help the world be a better place, but beware of giving bank details to anyone!

P.s. In all of my years of charity collections I have been told " You are not allowed by law to SHAKE a collection box ".

JamesW · August 2009

NickH wrote: »

It's piss easy to fake an official-looking ID card these days - would you know off-hand what a Red Cross ID card is meant to look like? Cancer Research? WWF?

This is the WWF logo, isn't it?

dm_boozefreek · August 2009

If you really want to danoate to the Red Cross and have a Red Cross Charity Shop nearby, you can go into that shop and should be able to sign up for the monthly donation in the shop. That way you know that it's actually a Red Cross member of staff that takes your details.

....or do the already mentioned online thing, don't feel badgered into donating by a guy on your doorstep. I got this big pitch from some charity guy once. Told him I was quite happy to donate money to the charity, but I wasn't signing anything. So he stood there for another 10 minutes or so rambling on about all the good...blah! blah! blah!

Then hands me a form, I told him again "I'm not signing anything", he started to get quite aggressive, so I told him where to go and shut the door in his mush....tosser!

Zoffy · August 2009

I'd be inclined to call the Red Cross and ask them if this really was one of their fundraisers, it sounds bloody dodgy to me having someone coming to your door and asking for your bank details.

Scottie_uk · August 2009

Well he came back and I sent him away. I told thim that I'm not cofortable with giving bank details to a stranger. So I said give me your bosses details so I can give you the credit then I'll sign up online. 'Nah its ok' he said and left quickly. I'm guessing her was a carrer collector from an agency.

dekh · August 2009

They were on about Charity Muggers (chuggers) on Radio 2 today.

They had a councillor on complaining about the volume/methods/intimidation tactics used by the street collectors and the charities had a representative on from their "regulator" who sounded like a slime.

Say no to all of them, they try and shame/intimidate/cajole you into donating. It is their job, on a percentage, to skim as much money off you as possible.

Pick your own charities and donate. Tell the rest to sod off.

psj3809 · August 2009

Think i told this before, about 2 weeks ago i had a kid knock on my door, looked a 17 year old oink, had a huge bag with him and gave me a card which said he had just come out of a young offenders institution and he cant get a job so he was trying to sell door to door. Could he show me what he had etc

He was very friendly, but i didnt want to and shut the door. Felt a bit guilty as i thought 'if' thats true then fair play to the lad for getting off his behind instead of being sat there claiming dole money and getting into more trouble with his mates

Walked the dog and met up with him later, apologised and look what he had, had some alright stuff, got a toy for the dog. Had a good chat with him, he and his mates were 'joyriding' a golf cart but as it was a petrol one that means its a 'car' to the police and so he was nicked and went to a young offenders place.

Was a really good lad, said he knocked on one door and the bloke punched him for no reason ! Felt a bit guilty for judging him instantly but nowadays you get so many people knock on your door you just dont know.

Vampyre · August 2009

We give ?5 a month to a guy who comes around collecting for a Wolves hospital childrens ward where both our kids were born. That came from him cold-collecting but I know he's legit as he's been in the local rag several times and been up for awards for it.

No way would I have given money like that otherwise, so you have to be very careful and as many have said you can set up stuff at the official charity shop or website.

Jumping Stack · August 2009

The reason that an organisation like the Red Cross would use door-to-door collection is because they will have worked out that for a particular region/demographic the method brings a better return on investment than using other media, including website/online. Big charities have big open accounts and you can look them up at Companies House if you need reassurance that they are not spending 99 per cent of your donation on themselves (which is narrow-minded scaremongering). For most big charities you don't even need to do this research as you can be sure that the press/media will have nosed around the accounts at the mereset whiff of a scadal or mis-spend.
The Red Cross' view is that Scottie's ?8.50 per month potentially recruits a donator for life and if the door to door guy pulls a few in each day it brings much lower cost per contact than, for instance, an ad in the newspaper.
It is a sad, but possibly understandable, reflection on society that people are very suspicious and wary of any such contact preferring to meet faceless people on websites such as this one.
Face to face is not always an ideal method of fundraising and can, as with chuggers etc become an imposition verging on intimidation. That said, people who have the strength to make their own charity decsions and stick to a plan can dismiss cold callers easily. I know my 3 chosen charities and have been to visit them to see how they spend their donations. One is regional UK (a hospice), one is national UK and one is International.
It can take a very brave person to do what PSJ's guy did and go door knocking in a world that is populated people who are hiding in their homes (sometimes, but not always out of necessity) and only daring to make conversation with strangers via fora like this one.

Jumping Stack · August 2009

Dingbat wrote: »

The main reason is that they earn more an hour than most people with 9 to 5 jobs and that money has to come from somewhere. The first thing to be clear about with any charity donations, is how much from each pound you give will actually go into the charity fund. In most cases it will only be about 1 pence, the rest will go on admin and paying the street collectors.

This is a fine example of the scaremongering I mentioned in my post above. Charity collection is minimum wage stuff. Do you see chuggers driving home in a Mercedes? Do you really think NSPCC could get away with spending 99p to raise 1p? Obscure rumours such as these put people off donating.
Working out who to donate to is simple. Find a cause you admire and then check what the charity spends money on - both good causes and their company directors - and then commit to that cause or carry on searching. A quick glance at one charity's financial data made me think 'that looks a bit top heavy with directors' and so I decided that it might not be very well run. But I easily found 3 good solid 'businesses' that drove great benefit into the lives of people who are suffering and I know the real difference my small donations have made.

Dave Fountain · August 2009

Whilst living in Nottingham I worked briefly for Oxfam in their area managers office, where I was told that charity shops are big business. Forget this image of old ladies who smell of parma violets volunteering in the shops, whilst they kindly do that for a free biscuit and a cup of tea the area managers are on a very good salary. At that time Oxfam had ?40 million in the bank. I left because their whole attitude to making money for worthy causes was actually outweighed by their worthy cause of making themselves profits, turned my stomach over, and funnily enough got another position with the Red Cross doing admin/fund raising and that was a much more down to earth organisation. No fly boys that I could see.

I'd be more inclined to sign up monthly, have done recently with the PDSA, than pop a pound in a tin, I find that so irritating, especially when they stand next to cash points. Do they think they will get a tenner!

mile · August 2009

yeah i did one of them door to door things. the girl was upfront and told me it was a bit of an arsy way of donig it and she got a little comission from it, but my money was gonig to help blind children, i signed on. takes about 8 quid a month and i get a little mag every so often. they send you a xmas card too, and last year they sent me some gift labels.

i'm a big boy now so intemidating tactics don't bother me, its not like they have a knife, and as long as they money goes to the needy its all cool

Scottie_uk · August 2009

Fudgepacker wrote: »

Whilst living in Nottingham I worked briefly for Oxfam in their area managers office, where I was told that charity shops are big business. Forget this image of old ladies who smell of parma violets volunteering in the shops, whilst they kindly do that for a free biscuit and a cup of tea the area managers are on a very good salary. At that time Oxfam had ?40 million in the bank. I left because their whole attitude to making money for worthy causes was actually outweighed by their worthy cause of making themselves profits, turned my stomach over, and funnily enough got another position with the Red Cross doing admin/fund raising and that was a much more down to earth organisation. No fly boys that I could see.

I'd be more inclined to sign up monthly, have done recently with the PDSA, than pop a pound in a tin, I find that so irritating, especially when they stand next to cash points. Do they think they will get a tenner!

Funny you should say that, in the early millennium I had a breif stint in the Oxford HQ for Oxfam. They all had expensive, desks, flat screen monitors (expensive at the time) and bang up to the minute PC's, and the head honcho's all had Mercs. It made me feel slightly uneasy about the organisation. I rather see the heads driving arround in Ford Focuses, and every one bar those who needed powefull machines (graphic designers, accountats, video editors) using second hand but competent computers.

My wife used to work for a in a regional office for smallish charity. The people running were very bad at their jobs, openly bitchy, made stupid decisions and alway made someone else take the can for their mistakes. The person running it had surrounded herself with a team of yes men/ladies, that didn't have the brains to stand up to poor decision making and money wasting. At one point they nearly ruined themselves, but always found the money to throw lavish overnight staff chistmas partys at a hotel. From what it looked like the lady running it was doing purely for the kudos and the champagne lifestyle of gala luncheons, charity balls and look at me celebs I give my life to chaaarrideee. If that wasn't the intention it was image that was conveyed. That said the people at the bottom end were doing some very worthwhile work, but were often held back due to managerial incompetence.

gasman · August 2009

Scottie_uk wrote: »

Funny you should say that, in the early millennium I had a breif stint in the Oxford HQ for Oxfam. They all had expensive, desks, flat screen monitors (expensive at the time) and bang up to the minute PC's, and the head honcho's all had Mercs. It made me feel slightly uneasy about the organisation. I rather see the heads driving arround in Ford Focuses, and every one bar those who needed powefull machines (graphic designers, accountats, video editors) using second hand but competent computers.

(disclosure: a large part of my day job, if not the majority, is contract work for charities, which pays me a decent salary)

I don't think that charities should be expected to penny-pinch any more than a regular business would - after all, a charity is basically just a business where instead of being accountable to shareholders expecting to see a return on their investment, it's accountable to the donating public expecting to see their money go to good causes. And like any other business, it needs competent, qualified people to run it... and if the job market dictates that they need Mercs for the directors, and flat screen monitors and computers that can load Word in less than 10 seconds for the administrative staff in order to attract those people and keep them happy and productive, then it makes good business sense to give them that.

Spex · August 2009

I've been doing charity work for about 8 years now.
Met some really decent folk and was pleased I was part of something that I thought worth supporting.

There has been a lot of hard work done by many people but one by one the people who did all the work or who have useful skills are being pushed out, the only ones who are staying are as Scottie put it are the "yes" people. Meanwhile, the bosses are boasting of what they have achieved.

I myself will be gone any day now, I set up and ran the website for them and recently found myself locked out of it with no reason given. It has been overlooked that I still own the domain name and the temptation to move it and regain control is so strong. Anyone ever done this?

Generally, charities are a business and need to run like it, this is why the bosses will drive expensive cars, they need to recruit top people and market forces etc.
As volunteers though you have no rights, if you have a problem with someone, the only option you have is to walk away, normal employment regulations don't count.

S

Scottie_uk · August 2009

gasman wrote: »

(disclosure: a large part of my day job, if not the majority, is contract work for charities, which pays me a decent salary)

I don't think that charities should be expected to penny-pinch any more than a regular business would - after all, a charity is basically just a business where instead of being accountable to shareholders expecting to see a return on their investment, it's accountable to the donating public expecting to see their money go to good causes. And like any other business, it needs competent, qualified people to run it... and if the job market dictates that they need Mercs for the directors, and flat screen monitors and computers that can load Word in less than 10 seconds for the administrative staff in order to attract those people and keep them happy and productive, then it makes good business sense to give them that.

Now don't get me wrong I think the people that work for charities should be paid as well as anyone else. But I do think there does need to be a different work ethic than in a normal business. People should be made to work towards the goal of minimising overheads and getting as much money to the front line as they can.

Spex · August 2009

Scottie, what you say is absolutely true, but the charity industry is BIG business and it wouldn't work without professional people who have bills that need paying.

There is still the idea that all work for charity should be done for free regardless. This is called voluntary work and is a different kettle of fish.

S

Lee Fogarty · August 2009

A friend of mine used to donate to cancer research. Then he got cancer.

Cancer research then sent him a letter saying (not word for word) 'now you've got cancer, you might like to increase your donations'

He cancelled the payments.

AndyC · August 2009

This is one of those times when what, to most people, sounds intuitively "right" isn't necessarily so. A charity which pays 100% of everything brought in to the causes it supports seems emminently sensible, however if investing 50% of the income raises donations tenfold then you are actually getting far more money to the good cause that way than by doing what seems "right".

Then there is the simple fact that penny pinching is rarely an effective way of spending. There is a reason the phrase "You get what you pay for" has been around for so long. Naturally you still need checks and balances in to make sure you don't have a ridiculous burn rate compared to profit, but running a charity like a business tends to see that happen anyway.

Should I or shouldn't I donate?

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