Picture of Street fundraising workers on Albion Street in Leeds city centre.I was unsure which story to run with here today, was it to be the Barclays saga or street fund raising workers. I said my piece to the Yorkshire Post reporter who asked me for my view on the Barclays story yesterday. Also I think this is a story that will run and run. So street fundraising it is.
Over the last few years there has been a rise in the phenomenon of the street charity fundraisers. I never really noticed them until I started this blog and was spending more time on the streets both in Leeds city centre and also some of the towns around the city.
I have spoken to several of the young people doing this job here in the city if only to get an idea of what it is all about and also have featured a couple of them on the blog. I have found them to be polite, idealistic, enthusiastic and genuinely well meaning. To be fair I tend to chat with the newer recruits to this industry and I am always surprised by what seems to me to be a very high burn rate or churn rate.
Charities today have changed from being mostly about the "charitable" thing that they do to being much more like big business. Many of the high streets here in the UK have several charity shops, not necessarily run by volunteers as they used to be but run by paid employees.
I took the above photo late yesterday afternoon on Albion Street in the city centre. Although there are 3 charity fund raisers in the picture there was I think also one more. You cannot miss them with their red hooded tops moving around in the middle of this pedestrian street. The girl in the centre of the picture later stopped me and asked if I could spare a minute... I said I liked her red Hunter shoes and she was a nice young woman from a nice family.
I first heard the term chugger from one of the cities better known buskers. A small part of me agrees with this sentiment. What do you think?
Posts
I don't know the term 'chugger' at all. HOwever, we do have quite a few street charity workers. They tend to be at the same place, each and every day, perhaps different individuals but the same charity. I just move on by. I do the same with the homeless and the sellers of 'Big Issue'. However, if there is a nation-wide, one-day-a-year campaign, I like to get in early with my $5 and then wear it on my chest as a protective device.
ReplyDeleteI haven't come across "chugger" yet, though street charity workers are multiplying major metro areas in our northeast corridor (NY, Philadelphia, etc). I've talked to a few, but it does occasionally feel more like big business marketing (ie, more aggressive and in your face) than it used to be. I've worked for charities in the past and the not-profit industry seems to have changed a lot in the past 5-10 years.
ReplyDeleteMy visits to England and my family in Yorkshire are usually limited to once a year, and I can not remember seeing any chuggers last year. This year certainly was different! In almost every town we went to, there were chuggers working the street. They were polite enough and instantly left one alone as soon as one said "no, thank you" (or something along those lines), but I must say there were just a bit too many, and they induced me to zig-zag my way across the high streets in order to avoid them.
ReplyDeleteOf course they are all young and good-looking... which makes me think that most of them must be enlisted through a promotional agency (I work with such agencies on a regular basis), which takes away some of what we would like to believe to be their personal enthusiasm - it is a professional one more than anything, I guess.
I return to Manchester on a very regular basis, and find it virtually impossible to walk through St Anne's Square or along Market Street without beong approached by a chugger!
ReplyDeleteThe term is new to me but the kids aren't. For a grouch like me the charities are doing themselves more damage than good.
ReplyDeleteMore often than not they don't talk to me now. I must send out bad vibes. :-)
I'm curious, and suspicious, about the training that prepares these kids for a high rate of rejection. In Vancouver the kids don't seem to be aligned with any particular charity. One day it might be MSF, and the next it could be Greenpeace.
Hello Wayne, that's what I meant when I mentioned promotion agencies in my comment above. These kids, as you call them, are probably not really part of the particular charity they represent on a certain day, but are trained promoters who will, through their agency, be sent out one day to sell new TVs at a big electronics supermarket, the next day subscriptions for a magazine and the day after that, collect money or signatures for a charity. That in itself is nothing to look down on, it is pretty hard work (and they are certainly not overpaid), but it does take some of the credibility away of a charity. At least that is my impression with most people.
DeleteHello Librarian. Just so you know, the particular people working in this picture aren't paid through agencies or promoters; The British Red Cross has been working as an "in house" charity for a while now. This means they are paid directly by the charity, and not on a commission based rate. Just so you know :) But you are right, some people are selling tvs one day then charities next.
Delete