Chugging...again

A couple of years ago I joined in a debate with various fundraisers and other interested parties on the lamented "Intelligent Giving" website (see blog entry http://sectorthree.blogspot.com/2008/11/chuggers.html). This week, whilst reading Third Sector magazine online I notice a piece on proposals from the council in Islington to ban chuggers off the streets of the borough. "Good" I thought, "About time", and added my two cents worth of comment. The next thing I knew was an email from Third Sector, and interview and today's lift;e article. And now I'm being contacted by a radio station in Dublin regarding this.

It is an interesting issue, as far as I am concerned, because I am unconvinced by the benefits of chuggers and chugging. Research by Intelligent Giving - and others - has shown that actually charities benefit very little from what chuggers bring in. Normally chuggers ask people to sign up to direct debits for a few quid a month. It has estimated that it is a year and a half into these direct debits, however, before the charities get a penny - before that all the money raised goes to the agencies paid to collect the funds. After that, if the amounts are in the £2 to £3 a month level, the amount the charity gets is not worth receiving - all it does is cover the admin costs of raising the money in the first place, and the costs of employing the fundraisers.

AS for the people on the street - they don't work for the charities they are collecting for, they work for the agencies that engage the charities, and are employed on a performance-related basis - in other words they don't get paid unless they get signatures. Thus good employment standards, minimum wage etc, go out the window.

There is a Professional Fundraising Association (yes, that's right, an organisation for fundraisers run by fundraisers) that oversees practices in the fundraising business - but frankly it is hard to see how they justify this - or quite a number of other - kinds of fundraising, except to justify their own existence. "Charities need the money" they wail, and of course it's true, and need it even more now they are losing Government funding (local, regional and National) for grants, contracts etc. And losing out on donations as the poor get poorer in all of Europe.

But who suffers as a result of chugging? Why should I object? Well I believe that actually, apart from fundraisers and private fundraising agencies, no one gains from chugging and everyone else loses. People in the street lose out because they are irritated and ironically a lot of the charities lose out themselves because of people's irritation; but most of all, in a place like islington it is local charities, local community groups and local people who lose out: Charities' names are tarnished in general, and those that DO give to chuggers give to national causes (or rather the agencies that collect on their behalf) DON'T give to local organisations. Street collecting for a local hospice or children's centre or other community project gets pushed out. Banning chugging from the streets (of Islington or anywhere) is something I can only applaud.