Charities cold calling for increased donations

Teledude

Teledude

Teledude

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Joined
4 Dec 2003
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Thoughts?

We give a tenner a month to battersea dogs home and they have just cold called me asking me to double my donation?!

Not chuffed I must say and I know others who will cancel because of this.

Where would you sit on this matter OcUK?
 
Red Cross did the same to me which resulted in mixed feelings of amusement and anger.

I don't like being bothered at home and especially when I've already been bothered by them and I give them money! Asking for more seems a bit cheeky on their part but I'm sure I'll live... Unlike some other people around the world!
 
This is a tough one, I don't like it, even many of them might not like it, but if they gain from it isn't their first priority to raise the funds needed to provide for those in need? I think I would have less scruples about doing such a thing if I were exposed to the end suffering, which I'm not.

Of course, I also think it could easily be a slippery slope and despite my above observations trying to play devil's advocate, I think it would cause me to cancel, at least in the short term as to make my feelings on the matter very clear. I sympathize with the needs of certain charities but there is a limit. All hypothetical for me though as I don't have a regular donation set up with anyone.
 
I donated a fiver a month to the red cross after the 2004 tsunami. They then hounded me with phonecalls and letters several times a week.

It resulted in me cancelling the donation. They've calmed down a bit, no more phonecalls, but I still get a letter begging me for money once a month or so.

Now all my charity goes directly to tramps.
 
I've had a couple of these in the past few months. All I do is simply ask if they have a website with more information on (which they usually do) and promise to read about them before making a donation online.

Of course after that I close the door and forget the website but if you play the "I don't up to anything without thinking about it card" they usually respect that.
 
I used to give to give to Greenpeace many years ago, but stopped my donation when they started phoning me begging for more money all the time.
 
I used to get it from Oxfam quite frequently depending on the latest disaster, I just told them to stop calling else I would stop my donation and it seemed to work.
 
Teledude said:
Thoughts?

We give a tenner a month to battersea dogs home and they have just cold called me asking me to double my donation?!

Not chuffed I must say and I know others who will cancel because of this.

Where would you sit on this matter OcUK?
Click to expand...

I'd call and cancel my direct debit because of it. That will teach them a lesson. You can give the money to RSPCA instead.
 
I do all my charity work through my Freemasonry and the issue you've highlighted is one of the reasons. Plus I also get a greater say on what my donations are used for.
 
I used to work for a call centre for 10 months doing exactly this. It paid pretty well actually considering I was 16/17, about £8.50/hr.

It annoys people, but it works. If I remember correctly about 40% of the people we called would increase their donation on an upgrade campaign.

Also it's not "cold calling" as you would have agreed to be contacted at some point.
 
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I got stung by the Red Cross Cold Call as I monthly donate. What really annoyed me was the sob story about Syria yadda yadda, so I eventually agreed to increase my donation. Once I said yes, it was as if I'd bought a car - the "very nice, we do this for the people of Syria" angle totally changed to T's & C's and "please be aware this phone call has been made by a commercial firm on behalf of the Red Cross".

I was totally mugged, I intend to cancel BRC and put that into Médecins Sans Frontières who I already donate to, and never bother me with cold calls.
 
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