The man who keeps 'chuggers' in check
"Excuse me, can I steal a moment of your time?" There's no mistaking the bib-clad clipboard carrier. This is a face to face fundraiser, more commonly known as a charity mugger, or 'chugger'. And he wants your £5 a month. But has he put more people off giving than he's recruited? Kyriaki Karadelis catches up with Mick Aldridge from the association that regulates this practice
"Often they think it's a bit of an inconvenience, it's a bit of a nuisance," admits the chief executive of the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association Mick Aldridge.
"But also at the back of their minds they're thinking, well they must be doing something good because they're always out there talking to people about it and they're always getting an audience."
New figures published in May 2008 suggest, perhaps surprisingly, that face to face fundraising doesn't bother the public as much as other fundraising methods.
According to the first annual report from the Fundraising Standards Board, it accounted for about 13 per cent of all complaints received by their member charities in the past year.
To put this in context, direct mail was the public's biggest gripe making up 31 per cent of complaints, followed by data protection issues and telephone fundraising at around 21 per cent each.
One third sector thinker doubts whether face to face is still effective. "There was probably a period when mail shots and people trying to get you to sign up on the street worked," remarks Professor Alison Wolf from King's College London. "It doesn't work anymore." She recently wrote an article, 'Why Britons are turning their backs on charity' for the Observer.
When asked if chugging has lost its touch, Aldridge begs to differ. "For the last four or five years it's been more or less steady that around 230,000 people a year sign a pledge to a charity on the high street and around 280,000 people a year sign a pledge from a fundraiser with a clipboard at their front door. So it's a little over half a million every single year (.)The total value of all these pledges being made is well over £50m."
He admits that not all of that will be seen by charities in the end because some people will change their mind. "Some people will contact their bank and opt for a lower amount and so forth. But the fact is, the thought was there and the vast majority of it, I would say well over two thirds of it, does find its way to charities."
"The forms of fundraising that tend to put people off more are the ones that give them less choice. You have to rely very heavily on good training of street fundraisers," says John Grounds, the NSPCC's director of communications.
He echoes Professor Wolf in thinking that the market for face to face fundraising is becoming saturated.
But Aldridge insists it's working precisely because it offers more choice. "If you get a mail pack it will make you a straightforward proposition: we would like to build some wells in Africa and will you send us the money? If you meet a face to face fundraiser in the street and they put the same proposition to you, you can ask questions. And the person can come to a much more informed decision."
He adds that there's still an element of success just from having the exchange. "The person might say, well I don't want to give my bank details in the street but I'll take your web address and contribute in another way. It may be that they will simply recognise the brand of the charity so that they'll give at another point."
If the reason that it's working is more informed choice, then what does Aldridge have to say to people who find face to face fundraising annoying or intimidating?
"The point about face to face is you don't have to give. You can ignore someone, you can just walk straight by. There's no need to get angry or upset or rude about it as unfortunately many members of the public do."
"There is a code of conduct in place - it's been in place for seven years now. Fundraisers should not use guilt-tripping tactics. They should not use flirtatious tactics. They should not deliberately impede a person as they're walking down the road. And you get into a very difficult judgement call when somebody says: 'well they held their clipboard right in front of me!' Well, they didn't actually hit you with it? They didn't actually stop you from walking forward? The bottom line is, if you still feel that you have been intimidated then you should make an official complaint."
Face to face fundraisers are legally obliged to tell people before they sign up that the agency employing them will get a cut from the charity's income. According to Aldridge this varies from between £35 to £150 per donor depending on how well-known the charity is - and so how much easier it will be to get people to give. Is it ethical for an agency to take what could amount to the first couple of years of a £5-a-month donation?
He's confident that it is. "The Charities Acts 2002 and 2006 which are soon to come into effect expect charities to use professional fundraising organisations. There's an allowance in those laws for a correct form of contract so that the charities can be absolutely sure their interests are safeguarded."
He also points out all charities will put some of their income towards generating more income. "When those donations are made every single penny that's donated is going directly by direct debit into the bank account of that charity. And every charity will invest some of their income in awareness raising and fundraising (...) they'll set a budget, and say we'll put aside this amount of money for fundraising in accordance with the guidelines and our experience, and that's what we'll pay the bill with."
Aldridge says that for many charities, face to face fundraising is the only viable option. "Either they're very very small and they can't afford vast mail campaigns or they've got a particularly difficult message to convey.
"Particularly charities dealing with issues like homelessness or mental health find that it's quite difficult to convey their messages in just a piece of direct mail."
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