Chugged

One cannot fail to notice the change in methods employed by charities for the collection of donations. The coining of the word 'Chugger' - an abbreviation of CHarity mUGGER, because that's basically what they are - just makes the change more apparent - it has become so commonly accepted, there's a word to describe it.

So there are these people who are paid - they used to deny it, now they don't because it's true and they had been lying, which kinda reflected badly on the charities - to hang around on the streets and talk you into giving money to they charity du jour. Fine, I get that, it makes a twisted kind of sense.

But once the charity has your details, they employ other people - entire call centres-worth - to phone you up every so often and ask - ever so politely, but ever so insistently - to give just that little bit more.

And they're bastages, they really are. It's very difficult to get rid of them for starters. Then, give them half a chance, that they'll hit you with all kinds of psychological trickery to make you want to give more money. It's a massive guilt trip, followed by a convincing argument that any donation, however small, can make a significant difference.

I got a call from one of them tonight... Representing, I believe, one of the charities I no longer make a regular donation to... His offer went as low as 50p per week ("that's £2 a month!").

Perhaps I'm too polite, because I can't just hang up on them, or tell them to bugger off... The only way I got rid of him was to accept the offer of a postal form which I could fill out and send in whenever I can.

On the one hand, it's just sad that charities feel the need to take such measures... but on the other, do they really need to?