I read today that several London Boroughs are considering banning street charity collectors, more commonly known as “chuggers”. These are people who generally approach you in the street and try and stop you to make a small monthly charitable donation to a certain cause.
I have not seen any here since I moved to Sweden, but each time I am back in the UK, I am usually stopped several times whilst walking down a busy main main street.
Now in the past I have actually stopped, listened to what people have to say and then politely either said I would think about or on two occasions have set up a monthly payment to a cause that I deem worthy. To this day, some five years on, I am still contributing on a monthly regular basis.
However, there have been times when the volunteers have been vocally aggressive when you either don’t stop or just politely decline. The article I read from Sky News quotes:
“Our undercover reporter was approached by reps working for Amnesty International outside Angel station in Islington, north London.
He told the fundraiser six times that he did not have much money and would like to “think about it” before committing to a donation.
The rep repeatedly criticised his decision to take time considering, saying: “What is there to think about?
“I mean imagine you were in a situation like that.
“You went to another country, and you said, ‘I think there should be democracy here’ and they lived under a dictatorship, and you got put in prison for saying that and nobody knew where you were.
“How soon would you want somebody to help you?”
For eight minutes, he persisted. “Are you going to go ‘I’d like to help you, but I want to think about it?’,” he went on.
“Imagine if I get everybody on this street today to give 20p a day to this charity. We’d be able to save so many people, but you know not everybody is that generous.”
Now for me that borders near harassment. Of course, these volunteers for the various charities are a lifeline in order for the charity to succeed. I do believe that, they need to monitor the effectiveness and methods used in order for donations to be given.
I would love to hear comments and feedback from others about “chuggers”, and if you think they overstep the mark or not.
