Charities are getting annoying

[Diddums]

I'm starting to think that the incessant begging from charities is becoming counter-productive. I'm not even sure who's behind all these campaigns, I don't think it's the charities themselves but rather the companies who are white-knighting.

In the last week, whilst paying by card, I've been asked to round up my transaction at Mcdonalds, Shell, KFC, my local petrol station, NCP car park (Wimbledon) and even at an ATM. These are the ones I can think of off the top of my head but there are more.

It's gotten to the point where it's just an automatic step now to press no, by default, without even reading anything. At my local petrol station, the machine doesn't even tell you what charity it is, it just says "donate to charity", you have to scan the whole checkout (which at a petrol station is generally covered in more tat and junk than a Chinese market stall) to find a tiny little card informing you that it's for the air ambulance.

It's gone from doing a good deed to just another step in your daily life, like accepting cookies on a website, anyone else think the same?

 

[Diddums]

Can't say I notice or that bothered about the above methods of charity donation. In fact 1p, 5p or even 20p to round up a payment is great in my eyes as I try and work my account all month without any penny transactions,

The real life chuggers are the real pain in the **** and the ones in Croydon are hyper invasive.

Yeah, I've mastered the art of body language, or if that fails, the London way of very firmly but politely making it very clear that I have no intention of stopping to entertain them. Bloody vultures, all of them.

The first time I got caught out was also the last, girl stopped me, asked if I could spare a few quid for a charity, I said yes and handed her a tenner. She then told me to put it away and asked me to enter all my detail on her ipad so they could sting me for a tenner every month.

Yeah lol. Good luck with that.

 

[Diddums]

I've not noticed, but I would say that I'd be much more inclined to give if they had a contactless card reader. I almost never have any cash, so whilst I'd often be happy to donate, I'm not going to go and find a cash machine and then get some change just to donate. I'm not suggesting you spend ages putting stuff into a machine, just maybe a sign that's like, "tap to donate £1."

The Poppy appeal had this at tube stations, it was very well organized. Walk up, grab a poppy, press either £1, £5 or £25 (or 10, can't remember), swipe, and off you go. 10 seconds, done. I was genuinely impressed.

 

[Diddums]

OP, haven’t you made at least one thread asking for people to donate things?

Correct

I have to agree. I would guess there's only so much "on street " that goes around and this is being spread quite thinly now. I've seen now that you can donate by "Contactless" payment which kind of detracts from the spare cash donations.
I donate carefully and generously to my choosen charities but I don't want to feel like I'm ignorant when I decide no to.

I prefer to see money being raised from donations of goods and services rather than outright begging.. For example, I just sold off a collection of prints where all the proceeds went charity .. I clear out prints I don't want, this saves on landfill, people get something and the charity of my choice makes money.. Everyone's a winner. Charity shops are more poplar and no longer have stigma they once had.

This is the gist of it isn't it, that just because I decide to donate that that exact moment, I should feel bad for declining. I donate more than enough already, I don't need these machines feeling around my wallet for loose change.

Also, welcome back @Diddums

Cheers, good to be back

 

[Diddums]

Not as annoying as people using the word 'gotten' on an English forum

Ikr lol words is hard lmao

 

[Diddums]

I've had a charity on the door step asking for donations. When I offered some cash they refused it and said they only accept a direct debit mandate. I put my money back in my pocket and closed the door.

This is where it all started for me. The inability to accept whatever I have on me at the time and instead require a monthly commitment. That was a mental shut down faster than Paris Hilton can get her knickers off.

My skepticism from that day has seemingly been correct, at my last job one of my clients had many offices for charities as their clients, so I was going to them on a weekly basis to carry out their maintenance, and I can safely say that they're not in any need of funding, make no mistake.

I've also come across various items over the years which the press obviously covers up as quickly as possible, but here are a few small bullet points:

• Wells built in Africa are built as cheaply as possible with no maintenance plans or futureproofing. They provide water for a week and as soon as the filters are dirty, the charities are nowhere to be seen.
• Same with schools built by charities, they are issued one set of everything, like books, chalks, etc. As soon as the charity can tick that box, they're out. Teachers get no training, they literally build a school, furnish it, and then leave the locals to figure it all out*. Classes with over 100 pupils, led by an uneducated teacher is standard practice.
• Clothes "donated to charity" are always old off by the kilo and often end up in markets in Africa. I worked with a Nigerian fella for a while who explained to me how they can get massive name brand stuff for pennies in Africa because it's all just sold by the kilo. Whatever doesn't sell ends up in landfill or burned.
• Computers donated generally don't get used as computers, they are actually stripped down for their precious metals in huge dumps, and the rest is burned. Often computers which have usable components in them are stripped of said components, new PCs built from them, and used to scam Western targets.

Here is some interesting watching:

Computers:

Clothing:

I can dig out some good resources as this is just the tip of the iceberg, but make no mistake, the money donated to most of these charities is either squandered here, or ends up in corrupt peoples' hands in the destination they were intended, or others are making money off it.

If you really want to help, then do it face to face. Give a homeless man a sandwich and a cup of tea, help at a soup kitchen, that kind of thing. Giving cash is a terrible idea.


It's such a shame as I know many volunteers who sacrifice their free time with the best of intentions, yet their actions are being undermined by the greedy fat cats in management.