Giving to charity

[Jamez]

Most of us have walked through the main shopping areas in our cities (i.e. Leicester Square in London, Queen Street in Cardiff) - both of which are full of shoppers and commuters.

If you haven't had the pleasure of walking through any of the UK's city centres, you won't have seen these people:



The dreaded 'Clipboard Mafia'.

They watch you coming, stand in your way and say "Excuse me sir, could you spare a moment for <insert charity name>?" To which I usually reply "Sorry, I don't give to charity". That has always been my mantra until today.

I was in a small little town today and parked outside the bank to withdraw some cash. A few metres down the pavement from me was a little old blind lady and her guide dog. She must have been about 70 and holding out a collection tin for guide dogs. I stood and watched her for a few moments and noticed that most people were ignoring her. One little girl put 10p in her box and the old lady was so pleased. In that instant I felt 10 years of guilt creep up with me. I turned and put my card back in the cashpoint, withdrew £20, folded up the note and popped it into her collection box. She obviously couldn't see how much I was putting in and was a little bit confused by the lack of coin dropping noises. Bless her.

However, I will still avoid those clipboard crusaders like the plague. If I want to give to charity I will. I will NOT be harassed and pressured.

Does anyone else here hate the clipboard mafia?

[Lorns]

i have 2 charities i donate 2. One was the Helen Rollasen. But as its target has been reached it is now a yoof charity. The other charity i do my bit for is Barnados.
Street collectors get nothing but a nasty look from me so they don't approach me.

I always give the Homeless on the tube station at midnight a fag and a choc and a coffee. I buy an extra coffee for the first random homeless guy i meet. And if they're lucky rhey get a bigmac meal too. I also buy the big issue and not read it.

I think i do my bit. The rest can fuck off

[Sput]

The clipboard mafia can be neutralised with two approaches:
1. "I've already donated online" - they don't actually take money, just persuade you to
2. feign interest and ask very specific questions and watch them crumble

Personally I'm too bad a liar to do number one and number two is too tedious, so I use "You're mistaking me for a decent human being" as they approach, which usually drives them aside. I loathe how they cluster around the Sainsburys entrance in manchester - I saw 6 of them together at one point haranguing everyone that came out. People rattling tins, that's usually pretty close to home and personal, I like that. Well, I don't *like* it, but tins, buckets and buskers are where I throw my coins.

[Nick Harvey]

I hate people with clipboards wherever they are, Leicester Square, Queen Street or The Brittox.

If I go to any of those places, sorry, but I go there to do whatever business it is which takes me there, and not to have my time taken up answering questions, whether they be about charity donations or what radio station I listened to last evening.

Charity giving should be a completely private affair, done quietly from your own home, if, and when, and to whatever degree, you feel able or willing to do.

Worse than the clipboard people and the tin shakers in the streets, in my opinion, are the twenty-pound-note-wavers, who find it impossible to put anything in a collecting tin in the street without waving it around first, to ensure everyone else sees what they're putting in.

I was (on behalf of an organisation) on the receiving end of a donation from our local Lions Club, many years ago. They absolutely refused to come along to present a cheque until I could confirm that the press photographer would be present as well. That's the sort of charity I can do without. If you're going to give money, do it quietly and privately; certainly don't make it a condition that you want your picture in the paper for doing it. I've been very much against all branches of the Lions ever since.

[Ronnie Rowlands]

I once came across a very insistent charity collector who didn't seem to understand that I didn't have any money.

"Sorry, I've got no money on me"

"Well, we get no help from the government"

"Yes, but I don't have any money"

"If we don't get donations, it's going to be very difficult for us to help <whoever they were helping"

"Well I'm sorry, I have no money so there is nothing I can do!"

She went on and on and actually followed me down a street until I managed to avoid her.

I really have no idea what the woman was expecting me to do.

[onetrickpony]

You put £20 in, what a nice person you are. I don't give anything to those clipboard charities, i just tell them that i will kill them if they ask me when i come back out of Woolworths the same question Seriously, i guess their only doing their job, just say no thanks and move on.

With tins at the end of the checkout, or in pubs i put the odd 50p in, but i do sit and wonder - is that money actually going towards a cause....

Oh i did give £10 to the Tsunami appeal, but i didnt have anyone money in my account, but Halifax still sent it off and i got a nice letter six months later from the disaster thing saying thanks.

[Jamez]

About 2 years ago, I was meandering through Cardiff city centre and was stopped by a sexy young lady paying me lots of compliments. Bordering on flirting. Being slightly more naive than I am now, I actually gave her a few details.

A couple of hours later, I received this e-mail:

Gift Bristol <[email protected]>
to me

show details
02/09/2005
Dear James,

Just a quick mail to ask for the sort code and acc. number,

Thanks,

Matt Westlake,

On behalf of Association for International Cancer Research.

Like hell I was going to send my bank details to a dodgy-looking Yahoo e-mail address. Cheeky bastards.

[Nick Harvey]

I once came across a very insistent charity collector who didn't seem to understand that I didn't have any money.

I hate it when you visit the supermarket and all these guys are standing around in the doorways shaking their tins, totally unable to understand the phrase "I've only got a credit card with me".

[cwathen]

When I first started uni I went through my idealist phase and did actually sign up for a monthly NSPCC collection. Two operatives were around; a fit girl with big wotsits, and a highly suntanned, muscular guy. Both were approaching the opposite sex (don't know how they fielded the gays and the lesbians) and making eyelids as they poured their heart out for their cause (which obviously, is great) and about what a great person I'd be to part with my two squid a month.

So I did it. Only once she had my bank details did she tell me that by law she had to reveal that she was an agency worker being paid to do a job - and not someone selflessly giving up their time in support of their charity. So, here's me thinking that I've giving £2 a month to help a charity end child cruelty, but actually I'm contributing to another student's beer money fund, an employment agency's rakeoff, and whatever is left goes to helping the kids (you can tell I was naieve, back then I didn't consider that an awful lot of the money left would be lost in the beurocracy of the charity to fund the wages of the various paid positions they have).

That's my issue with giving to charity - too much of the money never reaches the cause that you're giving to.

[Ronnie Rowlands]

I once came across a very insistent charity collector who didn't seem to understand that I didn't have any money.

I hate it when you visit the supermarket and all these guys are standing around in the doorways shaking their tins, totally unable to understand the phrase "I've only got a credit card with me".

They were probably collecting for Sound Seekers

[Lorns]

I remember when my cousin got confirmed. I was about 5. My dad said to me when the box comes round. Put a penny in and take a pound out. I did just that 'cos dads are always right, right. Wrong! so i found out!