clipboard advances

"Excuse me, would you like to come to a ball tonight in a lovely country house?"
"Er..."
"We're getting together to talk about God, but it's a really nice chilled out group of people."

(I have paraphrased a bit.)

There was absolutely nothing clever about my answer as I walked on.

i pretended i didn't realise he was talking to me

"not now, I'm staring at the sun"

There was quite a few of them, all dressed in luminous yellow jackets doing something for Oxfam. It was very early on a Sunday, so there weren't many people about and hardly any shops were open (hence my wandering). After about half-an-hour and before the hoards arrived, they just went home. I began to doubt their dedication to Oxfam.

Also sorry Alfie for calling you alang, I was resolutely and interestedly examining the amazing bargains in Top Shop as I passed you.

"I'm hotdesking" I replied, shouldering him into the curb.

But it's definitely a once bitten, twice shy thing. I don't find it hard at all to avoid them now. I sometimes smile sweetly and say no, but I never stop. I am worried that I am genuinely missing out on free chocolate tastings. Mind you, they do display their charity's name quite prominentily on their tabards. How long before sneaky, unclipboarded, plain clothes approaches begin? Mind you, then they'd have to be make sure they did look like someone about to asking for directions and not a street assailant.

People who come round my house are another matter. I also donate monthly to Barnado's because of a pretty Swedish girl. The honey trap!

a) these are not volunteers (they may not actually claim to be, but the impression is sort of that they are).
b) they work on contract to sales co.s who are hired by the charity. For each direct debit signed up, a set fee goes to the co. So there is little incentive for them to do anything other than, say, sign you up for 2quid a month (=24pound over the year) when 20pound goes straight back to them. (Again the figures may be different, but this is my impression).
c) In some places (eg. Princes St., Edinburgh) actual tin-waving collecting is closely regulated, so for example little local charities who can't afford big sales contracts with tabard-ers, get their one day a year, alongside the big ones. But because collecting signatures is not limited, these people can be out whenever they feel like it. There is evidence that direct cash giving on the street is falling as a result, and therefore that the proportion of charity given to the little local charities is dropping.

Of course there's no reason why people who are in the business of selling relief from guilt should not be evil capitalists like everyone else. But that's another story, I suppose.

I know - I run one. (Sort of).

The tabardeers obviously suckered a lot of people early on, we weren't used to being attacked by intelligent sounding, good looking young people. Now though I feel a small amount of their soul chipping away as I see them standing there. I'm about to go to the bank - I might chat to one of them to see what its like.

Most of the big charities have defended using these agencies, because if you are a massive org like Oxfam or Barnados you cannot possibly recruit enough or efficient enough volunteers.

But they are still bothersome scum.

This lunchtime at Sainsburys: "Do you have a dog or a cat at home?"

When it doesn't, I'm forced to be appallingly ignorant.

and one attempted by clipboard guy outside Bond Street Station:
"hello, do you know where Soho is" when they answered yes, he would show them a picture of Ms.London and bring out some spiel about a makeover.

I always get the relegious ones, "do you want to come to our church meeting?" "nah, it's okay thanks". One guy asked me if I believed in God and how life started, I replied that I think life probably originated in outer space, and we are just an experiment by alien races. He stopped talking to me.

My approach to charity, and I can't quite find a way to morally justify it, is that I'm perfectly happy to donate IF there is some effort involved on the part of the donatee. This almost always involves running the marathon, jumping out of a plane, yadda yadda. It also tends to mean that I know the person involved and can vouch for their honesty and character and lack of hidden charges.

I certainly give three-figure sums each year to charities this way, claiming back tax for the charity whenever possible. The only other times I give to charities are if I get guilt-tripped into it (or am in a very good mood) by collectors with a collecting tin.

Princes St in Edinburgh is a nuisance cause a lot of the time they seem to hang out between HMV and Virgin and since this is the patch of Princes St I am most to be found on it's a bit of a zig zag assault course to avoid them.

a) these are not volunteers (they may not actually claim to be, but the impression is sort of that they are).
b) they work on contract to sales co.s who are hired by the charity. For each direct debit signed up, a set fee goes to the co. So there is little incentive for them to do anything other than, say, sign you up for 2quid a month (=24pound over the year) when 20pound goes straight back to them. (Again the figures may be different, but this is my impression).

Obv I am not sure exactly what the situation is there, but in general neither of these things strike me as bad: Of course fundraisers should get paid -- it's a very difficult and important job. Similarly with the second part -- usually, at least with the monthly giving programs I'm familiar with, there is a minimum amount you can give per month. (Usually $10 or $15 here.) Obviously the scenario you describe is a fairly bad deal for the charity and they should get another group to do their fundraising.

On the other hand, some of the other comments make me wonder if in the UK you can fundraise for a group without their permission (the whole "you have to give 5% to the charity"). Maybe I'm misunderstanding it. I hope so, because that's kinda ridiculous (or at least, it's ridiculous if you're keeping any of the money) -- you shouldn't be able to make money off a group's name without their permission.

So, uh, what's the real situation in the UK?

As\it happened, I was collecting for charity with a tin, whilst wearing a tabard, in Summertown (a quite affluent district of Oxford) last saturday. I noticed that:

People were more inclined to give if I smiled

People were more inclined to give if they saw someone else giving

People were more generous when the sun came out

People with children between the ages of 3 and 8 always gave their money to the kid, so I crouched down

Teenagers are the stingiest age group

A popular local author whose character's name is a type of code walked past and gave me DIDDLY SQUAT (never liked your silly whodunnit books anyway :-p)

that should have said walked past SNEERING...

As I said, I don't find the whole thing bothers me much, but it's true that there are loads of these people actively approaching people on the street, and this isn't something that happened until a few years ago. They just used to stand and shake tins, now they are trying to get bank details from you every time you go shopping

No, I don't think people can randomly start collecting and give 5% to charity. They need to register with the charity, I'm pretty sure. But charities often do agree to it (esp. with high street stores selling Christmas cards) because they make the calculation that real charity-minded people will still go to the charity direct, wheras this just mops up some casual revenue that would otherwise escape them.

I'm not sure of the legal status of bodies that operate solely in fundraising on behalf of other charities. I'm not sure if they have to be registered charities themselves or not. You do see consumer watchdog programmes and articles investigating them sometimes. I think sometimes they are breaking the law by not being straight with people.

If this is fairly new, however, these fundraising groups might be unaware that they're oversaturating it. It's a tricky balancing act. Of course, if you happen to work in a spot that sees lots of "fresh blood" -- tourists, etc. -- then of course you'll get tired of being approached by them long before most passers-by can.