Saw a snippet on the news about “Chugging”. Apparently it is the process whereby charities pay fundraisers a substantial fee if they manage to get givers signed up to a monthly direct debit. This can be via approaching people on the street – clipboard in hand, (who hasn’t run away?) They also doorstep people in their homes and and do tele-marketing.
Interestingly I had someone phone me up last week from a charity I support from time to time with donations and purchases of cards etc. Presumably, a list had been given to one of these fundraising companies. It wasn’t made clear that the caller was from a company in a business arrangement with the charity, though to be fair the caller did say “I am calling on behalf of the xxxx”
The point is that it can take a year and a half or more to pay off the fund-raiser’s fee and the giver is probably not aware of that. A representative of one charity was interviewed and said that this was a recognised way of obtaining long-term funding and it worked. So why does it make so many of us feel uncomfortable? For my own part I already do a couple of regular giving plans but will certainly make sure I sign up via a website rather than a cold caller if I choose to support any other charities.
I wonder if this aversion to tried and tested selling methods is inherently British? That’s my thought for the day. Not very inspiring, but worth considering.
I just had to renew a department store card and was forced to listen to some credit card insurance spiel before they would validate it. I was so angry.
Some staff are coerced horribly into such tactics. Not a nice way to do business.
Some charities seem to go out of their way to cheese-off the very donors on whom they rely with a variety “after-sales” techniques. If it doesn’t cost them the customer altogether, they seem not to mind that all their customers are now miffed. Can’t say it makes any sense to me either.
(Been there, stopped supporting two such charities myself for much that kind of reason.)