Why I won’t stop to donate to charity collectors

Mikey – we’re really going to have to agree to differ on this one! It isn’t begging when a volunteer asks for money for people in desperate need – it’s humanity helping humanity. It really is begging when the first year or so of a direct debit goes on the chugger’s salary. Also – it’s insulting, and ridiculous, and kind of racist, to say white people don’t give to overseas aid. The numbers give you the lie on that one.

If chugging was done differently, there would be a different reaction. If, say, charity workers went out, paid by the charity directly, as a tiny part-time job, and stood, one per street, at the side of the street, once a week, maybe, per charity, with the usual clipboard and tabard, raising awareness, etc, POLITELY, it would be different. Their salary – maybe a bit above the minimum wage – would never be dependent on commission – that’s an accident waiting to happen. They would say, upfront, they’re being paid by the charity. Awareness and funds would still be raised, and nobody would complain about being harrassed. THAT’S fundraising, not chugging. Most people would also be a lot more polite to somebody being polite to them.

What we have now, though, is about four to six people standing in the middle of the street, physically stopping people, harrassing them, guilt-tripping them, intimidating them – turning an otherwise pleasant afternoon into a bit of a nightmare. Day after day, when people are under enough stress as it is. Given all this, it may only be a matter of time before violence is involved – ie a chugger gets punched.

The fact you ‘laughed’ at the idea that people have real problems in this country beggars belief. Yes, everyone has problems – you don’t use that as an excuse to add to them! People don’t want to have to cannonball down their high street, avoiding insults and intimidation. The fact that a lot/most of the money raised will go on the salary of the person insulting them, or on the salaries of the marketing agency fatcats, just adds insult to injury/poisons the whole thing to the nth degree.

What’s happening now is: you’ve got somebody struggling for money, getting harrassed in order to pay the large (sometimes £200,00.00 plus, it seems) salary of the marketing agency ‘top’ people. Who take advantage of a lot of young/vulnerable people who apply for work with them (given some of the comments made by previous chuggers on other websites.) Charities should never have gone to these agencies, imo. Take a look at what’s happened since they have. People harrassed, charity pr gone into free fall, etc.

Islington is now considering banning chugging altogether, and other town centres will prob. follow suit. This wouldn’t have happened if the chuggers had behaved with decency.

As for ‘the end justifies the means’ idea of money being raised – as somebody else pointed out on another site – you could raise more money still by literally mugging everyone on the street. Physically blocking the pathway, harrassing, guilt-tripping, intimidating – these are all tactics of aggressive begging, and shouldn’t be excused by the ‘it raises money and awareness’ excuse.

Everyone these days is ‘aware’. Most people contribute to charity. Nobody really wants to contribute to a rich man’s salary/to aggressive begging tactics, etc etc.

Anyway. I wish everybody here love and joy in their lives (including Mikey! Esp. now he’s stopped chugging …!) Thanks, GGDad, for the support! We should all be able to walk down our high streets without being harrassed and intimidated. And charities should, of course, be able to advertise and gain funds/support. It seem the rot really set in when the advertising agencies got involved? But – however the present chugging situation came about – something’s got to change.