It Should Be Enough – But It’s Not!
When did charity become so pushy? When did door knockers adopt the used car salesman pitch?
I donate to a lot of different organisations on a regular basis but it’s always when I can spare the money. Majority of the time it may only $5 and I think that’s OK because I can comfortably give that much without the concern of my family requiring to live on rations.
If we are at the supermarket I will buy a pen to raise funds for the children hospitals, bandannas for canteen, cancer council, guide dogs, rescue choppers and I donate to op shops, charity bins and the list goes on. I love being able to contribute in ways such as the above and up until today I could always spare a few gold coins for door knock appeals.
Today however…… My opinion has changed!
I think it’s fair to say I am absolutely appalled!!
I’m not going to name this particular charity as they do some amazing work for the less fortunate, homeless, troubled youth and are now even providing breakfast at some schools for children who don’t get it at home. I have given to this foundation for years but after today I’m not sure I will again!
Gone are the days of emptying out the coins from your wallet, your money boxes or under your couch cushions. They no longer want cash, they want credit pledges. My kids and I were so kindly told today (that was a nice way of me saying extremely rudely!) to keep our collection of coins! My kids wanted to give half their savings to help people and we have been waiting to donate.
| K’s (3) would have been donation |
But NO! A one off donation is no longer acceptable; they wanted me to pledge $50 every month.
| D’s (5) would have been donation |
When I told them I couldn’t give that much they told me they could probably go as little as a $15 monthly contribution and that surely I could afford it! Now it’s not that I can’t afford $15 a month, I can.
It’s that I refuse to be treated or spoken to like that from anyone!
I told them to leave – without a donation!
They should be ashamed of themselves, telling young children who are kind enough, generous enough to want to help other people by giving them their money that they have saved to buy toys that it isn’t enough!
Since when was there a minimum you could give to help people in need?
When did volunteer door knockers become so rude, insistent and ruthless? Well actually, they aren’t even volunteers anymore. They are paid door knockers according to their name tags.
When I donate it is because I can and because I want to help the cause not so I can boast and say I’m a platinum pledger!
I don’t appreciate being told how much I can give! No, make that how I have to give. Maybe if you accepted all kinds of donations you would collect more for the foundation!
I feel the same as you. I can’t understand why charities are so pushy. We give as much as we can yet they want people to go into credit card debt {the worst kind of debt}. I now feel though if my loose change isn’t good enough then they really aren’t want donations. My loose change is good enough to feed my kids, buy milk & put a couple of dollars worth of petrol in the car.
Thats exactly right Jos. If those coins are good enough for our family to live on why aren’t they good enough to help someone who needs it?!
How horrible! First of all, well done to you for raising your children to so kindly donate their savings, hats off to you! Second, how dare they assume that you can afford ANY kind of monthly donation. It is none of their business what you can afford and I must say I would have told them to shove it. This is where you wonder how much of your so called “donation” (it just wouldn’t feel like a donation to me if its auto-deducted from my credit card each month) if they are being paid to do this.
Thanks we try but as you will see by my post (in a few days) raising them like that is a working progress! LOL. I feel the same, I just cant see it as a donation when it is auto-deducted. Its ridiculous!! Thank you for letting me know I’m not the only one who feels this way!
That is simply rude. I would think they would be happy to receive whatever money they could. And to knock back the giving of children? Disgusting.
Well that is what I would have thought Becky being a charity however apparently our money isn’t good enough. The look of confusion on the kids faces was quite disheartening as we were trying to teach them to appreciate what they are offered and not to expect anything more. (Thanks ‘CHARITY’ you have really helped my cause here!)
It’s a shame that they feel they need to push people into giving – people will just end up cancelling later!
Yes I agree, I think they would make so much more by offering to take the few dollars that people are willing and can afford to give. I refuse to be pushed into signing up for anything like this. It’s no wonder we have so many people in need, if they took what was offered they would be able to help more!
That actually made me feel sick. Those gorgeous kids were going to give their piggy bank money and were rejected? WTF??
Yeah I know it’s pretty bad when your 3 & 5 yr old are being told their money is worthless. It’s a joke!
I would give to that charity if they knocked on my door and I happened to have some reachable cash (and looked legit) but no way am I giving a monthly pledge. To be honest, if they’d given me the surely you can afford it line, I would slammed the door in their face.
How about my contribution to their good work is to not call upon them, even though I often really could use the help, but because I want their resources to be available to those who need it more. That’s a donation too.
Thats what I felt like doing! I was just stunned and so angry at their rudeness I think that I was confused for a minute. What sort of charity tells you that you can afford to donate however much a month. Just so rude!
That’s terrible… I don’t know what org you’re talking about but it’s very common now for non-profits to outsource their fundraising to third-parties where the people are paid commission so they use real ‘sales’ tactics. Another thing to be mindful of is that the research says that if a person makes a monthly donation they are likely to remain donating, on average, for three years so the orgs REALLY want you to commit because they know you’ll stay for a while and they can undertake planning based on projected revenue. It’s such a shame that it has come to this. Your poor kids, they must’ve been so disheartened. Find another organisation – there are still plenty who would be so grateful. (I teach non-profit marketing…!)
The worst thing about it is that we try teaching our kids to be grateful for what they have or what they’re offered. For these people to tell them it’s not good enough is beyond disheartening. It’s a mix of anger, shock, confusion, etc. People in need would be happy and be extremely grateful for someone to hand them some money, just because they want to help.
I make monthly donations to a particular charity and they will call once in a while to ask if I would like to increase my donation. I initially committed to them when I had a high paying job and despite being only on one income now, I haven’t changed my donation and yet, they’re asking me for more when we are now in less of a privileged situation AND have twins to raise.
I got so upset.
But I agree. I don’t like having someone tell me how “generous” or “charitable” I should be…
It shouldn’t matter how much you make or where you live, etc, they have no right to ‘expect’ a cetain amount from anyone. They should be happy with how much people can afford to donote. Thanks for commenting
Well, that’s just rude. I got a call the other day from a charity that I happened to have just donated to that week already, and was left feeling awful that I wouldn’t donate again. I’m sure they thought I was lying.
hahaha yep know what that’s like. I donated in a store and then they rang asking again but as soon as I said I had already donated the tone changed to ‘you a lying bitch’. hahaha I guess there is no winning.
My husband and I have a policy about which charities we will and will not support, and how we will support them. We will never support any charity over the phone, no matter how worthy.
We have picked several charities that we give to regularly. We always buy some extra food at the supermarket and put it into the local family support service food collection box (for emergency food hampers). If someone told me that what I was doing was acceptable, that would be the end of the support they got. I refuse to feel guilty for not supporting every charity that comes along. I target my money to where I think it will do the most good.
Why not send an email to the organisation and tell them that you were highly unimpressed by their tactics! That way they know that what they are doing is unacceptable.
That is a great policy! I might have to follow suit. Thank you for wise words
That is so sad and rude. There are plenty of organisations that still accept coins . I agree with JO, email them.
Cate Bolts Foundation 18 has a coin donation collection called The giving bowl if you are interested.
Thanks Trish, will google them now and see what they are about. Thanks heaps for commenting