Uncharitable Thoughts

It seems I can’t enter a supermarket these days without being confronted by an earnest backpacker w ielding a clipboard who tries to tell me about their cause and get my credit card details. I don’t care how worthy the organisation is; I don’t necessarily want to talk about it when I’m rushing around in my lunch hour.

Furthermore, I have my doubts about the way they work. If someone’s trying to sell t hem on a cause I expect them to be a genuine copper-bottomed head-over - heels enthusiast, and these people aren’t that, or aren’t solely that. They don’t even necessarily belong to the charity they’re spruiking for – they’re paid employees of specialised face-to-face fundraising agencies. Some get paid on commission (up to a shocking 95% of your first year’s contribution). The English even have a word for it – “ chuggers ”, or charity muggers. And their numbers are growing exponentially, in Australia as overseas.

At least, that’s what I tell myself. I’m not absolutely sure, digging a little more deeply, that there’s not an element in my attitude of that old playground catch-22 – “Well, I was going to give you one of my biscuits, but since you’ve been rude enough to come out and ask for it instead of waiting politely for me to offer it to you, now I won’t.” (Eats biscuit.)

In a better world, unpaid volunteers would do the fundraising. In a perfect world, I would. But I’m actually not planning to, and in the actual world we live in organisations are increasingly outsourcing their fundraising in the same way that they outsource their marketing – and they’re doing it because i t works. Despite the public’s perception that these “ fronties ” (as they call themselves) are pushy a nd unnecessary, last year they signed up hundreds of thousands of regular donors to

important causes.

All face-to-face fundraisers must comply with the Fundraising Institute of Australia (FIA) Standard of

Practice. They aren’t allowed to seek donations from kids, the frail, or the elderly. They’re banned f rom accepting cash donations (which distinguishes them from the tinrattlers loitering at the traffic lights). Chuggers are also banned from stopping a person going about their lawful business ... and that includes picking up a tin of tuna from aisle 3.

Let’s face it, it’s not the impediment to our going about our business we object to, it’s the guilting . And the only way to avoid that is to tell chuggers , “Sorry, I’m already signed up to half a dozen g roups on GiveNow.com.au.”