Re: Flipping Cheek

They ask £3 a month because ( I think ) it is the lowest amount that is worthwhile on a direct debit basis .
Obviously if they have a direct debit they have a regular coming in.
£3 a month is only £36 a year.

Re: Flipping Cheek

I must admit that is another thing I don't much like, when they try to get you to sign up for direct debits for ongoing payments.

The RSPCA did this to my Mum once, 2 of them knocked at her door and wanted her to sign up.
Mum was around 88 at the time and almost totally deaf, and they really pestered her to do a direct debit. I was furious.

Also, a friend of mine has donated regularly to the RSPCA for many years, but even that is not enough for them.
They are constantly phoning her to try and talk her into increasing her direct debits!!
She has told them if they phone her any more she will stop the payments altogether.
Dreadful way of going on.

Re: Flipping Cheek

I give to the Sally Army when they're collecting in supermarkets and such places but I draw the line at psychological blackmail such as I had in yesterday's post. It was an envelope full of Christmas cards for me to purchase (or not thus laying the way for a guilt trip). Needless to say, it went straight into the green recycling bin.

Re: Flipping Cheek

That is the same tactic as all charities use now by suggesting an odd figure but you can still give what you like, all charities I subscribe to are also trying to get monthly contributions rather than a larger one-off payment, a move I always refuse.

Personally I never subscribe to any religious organisation because it only encourages them and I favour overseas charities over national ones (with the exception of The Smith Family and the Police Boys Club). Even our poorest are wealthy compared to many in the world.

Re: Flipping Cheek

Yer daft ha'p'orth. Ah'd ave used t'cards!

Re: Flipping Cheek

I always collect and use the cards, the pens and the return address stickers they send to encourage you to give. They come in very handy and I don't feel in the slightest bit guilty about it.

Re: Flipping Cheek

I'll do direct debit to Amnesty and MSF. (it's all Tax deductible )
I did sign up to Red Cross until I discovered that many of the people signing you up are employed by an agency..that take the first $500!!! of your direct debits and then pass your donation on to Red Cross. Beware, there are many big charities turning toward this type of collection.

"..In the following weeks he could be dressed up in the lurid green of Oxfam, carrying a badge for the doctors of Medecins Sans Frontieres or wielding pamphlets on eye disease for the Fred Hollows Foundation.

But he is not a serial volunteer for all these charities. Chance are, he isn't even a member.

In fact, he is privately employed by a marketing company, Cornucopia Consultancy. And for each person he signs on to give to charity, Cornucopia takes a cut - a big cut, up to 95 per cent of the total donation collected in the first year. But the longer a donor stays on, the greater the return to the charity."
http://www.smh.com.au/national/payin...1025-hepx.html

Re: Flipping Cheek

I give to UNICEF only because I have a friend who was employed by them and she donated her salary back to them which I thought was very noble. Granted financially she was in a position to be able to do that, she was confident in the way they spent money donated so I donate to them too.

Re: Flipping Cheek

It makes me laugh these charities that send an envelope with cards in, or pens, and then ask for donations. On Saturday it was the turn of The Red Cross. This time it was a card, a book mark and two beer mats.

Surely it must costs these charities to get the postman to deliver the stuff, not to mention the making of the cards, book marks, beer mats and purchase of the pens.

Madness.

Re: Flipping Cheek

I use the pens if they are any good and throw the rest in the recycling bag.
No more charities for me.