I hate chuggers with the heat of a thousand suns. Why do charities use them? Everyone hates them. Are they effective at raising funds??
Replies
In big charities the £££ goes to people who can bring in even more £££, and you better believe they measure results. To quote Father Dougal McGuire, I am rather cynical about the professionalisation of charity fundraising.
aug 28, 2025, 12:51 pm • 2 0 • view
I'm fine with the professionalisation of fundraising - I'm a charity trustee and fundraising is hard - but I think chugging is aggressive and borderline abusive
aug 28, 2025, 2:44 pm • 0 0 • view
I'm a charity trustee too, and I agree you can do professional fundraising well. I think there is a danger it can take over, encroaching on core strategy to the general detriment. Tail wagging dog etc. James put it really well I think:
aug 28, 2025, 2:55 pm • 3 0 • view
It is more of an issue I think for large charities. In the absence of a clear vision and strong leadership across the board, those leading on fundraising / income generation can become very powerful - and the risk is they end up self-serving.
aug 28, 2025, 2:55 pm • 3 0 • view
...but this is probably all a bit philosophical etc. - and yes I hate chugging too!
aug 28, 2025, 2:55 pm • 1 0 • view
There’s also the risk of funding fiefdoms in the org, of course: X manager has a relationship with Y funder, and so because they bring in the money the org structure works around them, etc. All quite headache-y!
aug 28, 2025, 2:56 pm • 3 0 • view
One of the many ways in which I am a bit weird is that I find the occasionally mercenary / realpolitikal nature of this distasteful. Locating your participation in charity world in a bidding war around your network and pulling power rather than the focus of the charitable objects is...yuk.
aug 28, 2025, 3:05 pm • 0 0 • view
I don't have a problem with fundraising consultants who help you with this, although I do think it's a sign of systemic failure in funding. It's taking a senior leadership position in a charity when you're basically ambivalent about it's purpose that...well, yuk.
aug 28, 2025, 3:05 pm • 0 0 • view
fortunately that's not the case at the charity where I'm a trustee!
aug 28, 2025, 2:56 pm • 1 0 • view
I hit them with a quick compliment and keep walking. “I like your glasses!” and then I’m gone like dust in the wind.
aug 28, 2025, 3:11 pm • 1 0 • view
Regret to inform you that I did once sign up to a direct debit because the chugger looked like Jake Gyllenhaal Let them have 3 months' worth then cancelled it
aug 28, 2025, 12:49 pm • 10 1 • view
ha ha, I love you, Tabs. That is all x
aug 28, 2025, 2:36 pm • 2 0 • view
Benny is trained* to do a runner when there’s anyone at the front door so I can do “FFS, he’s an indoor cat” as an escape clause *or he has trained me to give him dreamies to come back inside 🤷🏽♀️
aug 28, 2025, 3:16 pm • 1 0 • view
Yes, I'm totally going to give personal info to some random bloke in a hi-vis...
aug 28, 2025, 12:51 pm • 1 0 • view
What I hate even more (and I will probably get cancelled for saying so) is the Big Issue seller permanently outside the supermarket, so that I feel guilty every time I pass them, even though I give to homeless charities elsewhere.
aug 28, 2025, 1:18 pm • 3 0 • view
I believe there's one particular charity that I've only seen as chuggers (never elsewhere!) that only spends a fraction on the actual purported cause
aug 28, 2025, 12:50 pm • 2 0 • view
OH just got back from Chelmsford Racecourse. She and a friend raised £3,000 in one day for limbless veterans. She didn’t hassle anyone. Just sat there while very nice pissed people generously gave some of their winnings.
aug 28, 2025, 9:23 pm • 2 0 • view
Yes, they are very effective, I'm afraid – especially for smaller charities with local connections who can't target corporate donors or mass participation events.
aug 28, 2025, 12:50 pm • 0 0 • view
I refuse on principle to give to any charity I see using chuggers.
aug 28, 2025, 2:37 pm • 0 0 • view
there was a wumman stood at the door of M&S in Glasgow with a collecting bucket One day someone from the charity in Glasgow for personal reasons saw her and went "haud on, we dontl't have a Glasgow org/we don't do bucket collections/something/something"
aug 28, 2025, 4:41 pm • 2 0 • view
20 years there, local legend, always the charity work Got the jail
aug 28, 2025, 4:41 pm • 2 0 • view
Probably - from vulnerable people. It’s immoral.
aug 28, 2025, 12:49 pm • 3 0 • view
A couple of years ago I got talking to one who had a sob story and everything. I *KNOW* he told me it was a 1 off £20 donation and yet somehow they took £20 each month. Was very underhanded
aug 28, 2025, 1:29 pm • 4 0 • view
That would contravene both the Fundraising Regulator code of practice AND the Direct Debit Guarantee, so I hope you complained.. the charities themselves usually use agencies for this and won't want this happening!
aug 28, 2025, 3:14 pm • 0 0 • view
I complained & cancelled the payments
aug 28, 2025, 3:34 pm • 2 0 • view
In the street I always put my touch rugby skills to use and rely on them to respect the three-step rule. I hate the doorstep ‘patter’ where they repeat a carefully crafted statement no reasonable person could say no to in order to hook you, like it’s a sales process.
aug 28, 2025, 4:06 pm • 1 0 • view
I hate them with a passion. IMHO the list of chugger terribleness goes: 1. The ones who knock on your door. 2. Those who try to get you as you walk in/out of shops. 3. The ones on the street who desperately try to get your attention.
aug 28, 2025, 1:52 pm • 2 0 • view
0.5 The ones who stake out the bottom of the stairs from Euston station to Eversholt Street as they are there nearly every day for me to ignore and sometimes also block the stairs. No issue with closing the door on the first group saying I'm not interested.
aug 28, 2025, 11:13 pm • 2 0 • view
they're all just absolute parasites
aug 28, 2025, 2:31 pm • 3 0 • view
Basically yes. Charities (or the ones big enough to employ chuggers, at least) watch fundraising metrics extremely carefully so if they're doing something, it's working. They don't love sharing those figures but ROI is probably around 4:1 or 5:1 which is pretty good for mass-market fundraising.
aug 28, 2025, 1:05 pm • 0 0 • view
Ugh, ugh. It makes me think a lot less of the charities that use them.
aug 28, 2025, 2:34 pm • 0 0 • view
It is genuinely odd to me that the door-to-door folks think I will give them my bank details to set up a DD rather than do it myself on my banking application with their recipient bank account details. It seems they don't get the commission for this way of doing things though?
aug 28, 2025, 1:07 pm • 11 0 • view
I went years without a doorbell but missed one too many deliveries so had to get one. I went for a video doorbell connected to my video alexa thing so I can see who's there and whether they need ignoring or not.
aug 28, 2025, 1:54 pm • 1 0 • view
Yes. Used to work for charities and they really work (we were also aware people hated them). Also, direct debits are like gold to charities because people keep them for quite a long time and they allow charities to budget and plan in a way that one-off donations never will.
aug 28, 2025, 12:56 pm • 6 0 • view
My various charities are all paid Direct Debit. A great option... though I have never and will never give to a charity based on a chugger. I need a lot of thought and consideration for a choice like this.
aug 28, 2025, 1:44 pm • 3 0 • view
Presume the con enough direct debits out of unsuspecting punters to make everything else worthwhile.
aug 28, 2025, 1:08 pm • 1 0 • view
I was a street fundraiser for one charity for a full year back in 2006-7. I feel it could have been a valuable income stream if managed with care (both within that org and the wider sector). IMO it was not managed with care. And I don’t think we were treated very well as employees, either.
aug 28, 2025, 3:05 pm • 1 0 • view
I feel sorry for the young people I see doing the job today. It was hard enough 20 years ago. I can’t imagine it’s got easier.
aug 28, 2025, 3:06 pm • 3 0 • view
I've often wondered what might happen if two chuggers from different charities met. Is there a battle of wills; each trying to get the other to sign up first as a sign of dominance? Or do they just immediately engage in a territorial clipboard slap fight?
aug 28, 2025, 1:30 pm • 4 0 • view
Agreed. Fundamentally un-British in my view. When I am king they'll be the first to go.
aug 28, 2025, 1:19 pm • 2 0 • view
Normally I evade, ideally by keeping some other sucker between me and the predator. Failing that I have to be rude, and just say 'sorry, not stopping'. Occasionally, if I'm trapped, I will list the charities to which I give money and ask which they'd like me to take it from.
aug 28, 2025, 1:21 pm • 0 0 • view
Do they herd you into a bait ball by blowing bubbles and shaking their chuggers at you, before swooping in and emptying your pockets? 😂 My OH is out today chugging for BLESMA, who are mostly reliant on small donations and legacies. Personally I don't give this way as gift aid is more effective.
aug 28, 2025, 1:33 pm • 2 0 • view
I am very elusive and hard to capture, like a flighty rodent on the Savannah. I am surprisingly quick when threatened, and always alert. I only really get trapped if waiting somewhere like a train station, and even then it's probably only because I fancied a chat.
aug 28, 2025, 1:39 pm • 2 0 • view
But yeah, I'd much rather give via direct debit to charities I've sat and thought about for a bit. Preferably if it involves not having to interact with anyone.
aug 28, 2025, 1:40 pm • 2 0 • view
What I really hate though (and which we should direct our righteous anger towards) is when you give a small one-off donation online and then they spend that money sending you junk mail by post. And even that is a loss leader for them, so your donation has caused less money to be given to the cause.
aug 28, 2025, 1:56 pm • 2 0 • view
Agreed. I've cancelled direct debits to charities who've used the initial donation as an excuse to get my contact details and then pester me.
aug 28, 2025, 2:01 pm • 0 0 • view
I have no hesitation in being rude if necessary. I shook my head at one with a fierce glare earlier and he still pursued me, so I told him to get out of my face.
aug 28, 2025, 2:33 pm • 2 0 • view
I just act as if they don't exist and walk by despite all the efforts they make to get my attention. There's something oddly satisfying about the displays of frustration it seems to cause in them. What's even more annoying though are the ones that go door to door.
aug 28, 2025, 1:47 pm • 5 0 • view
the ones on the doorstep are the worst, because that leverages people reluctant to tell them to sod off. It's borderline abusive.
aug 28, 2025, 2:32 pm • 3 0 • view
I tell them I'm not interested and simply close the door once it's apparent why they're there. Why give the chance to waste my time? Still annoying though...
aug 28, 2025, 2:34 pm • 3 0 • view
I now use this, one of the last pieces of wisdom ever to come out of Twitter. Fish in the car. Never fails.
aug 28, 2025, 3:00 pm • 188 36 • view
"can't stop, I've left my sewing unattended," once reduced someone to bafflement as I dodged them.
aug 28, 2025, 3:09 pm • 18 2 • view
"Can't stop, I'm en route to one of our Childrens Hospice charity shops..."
aug 28, 2025, 3:13 pm • 1 0 • view
I just turn up the stammer and deliberately loom at them. This works quite well, providing the combined impressions that a) I am Not Normal b) I am growing visibly frustrated and c) You don't want to be on the wrong end of that.
aug 28, 2025, 3:16 pm • 0 0 • view
Stammering is also ace for spam phone calls.
aug 28, 2025, 3:17 pm • 0 0 • view
I worked as a chugger in my youth (and then as a charity call centre worker), and some people are really good at it, so genuinely get a lot of sign ups. How ethical it is... I'm not sure. When I was doing it, the person needed to be signed up for at least a year for the charity not to LOSE money.
aug 28, 2025, 3:16 pm • 4 0 • view
And I think those of us who were good at it got sign ups because people wanted us to like them, maybe? So, how long they'd actually sign up is very questionable.
aug 28, 2025, 3:17 pm • 3 0 • view
I donate to a charity for deaf children only because an incredibly attractive young woman in a hijab said "nice haircut" ten minutes after I had left the hairdressers, disorienting me enough that I met her gaze and was caught.
aug 28, 2025, 3:21 pm • 7 0 • view
My partner signed up for one (before we met I hasten to add!!!) because there was an attractive man who flirted with her, and got her number. Anyway, he was apparently gutted when it became apparent that she only signed up to the charity to get his number, in an odd inversion of the usual dynamic
aug 28, 2025, 3:42 pm • 2 0 • view
Also I was about to meet a date so I purposely wasn't giving off "Leave Me Alone" vibes
aug 28, 2025, 3:24 pm • 0 0 • view
It doesn't matter, TBH, there's a float for every boat, so even your real "leave me the fuck alone" person can be hooked in.
aug 28, 2025, 3:28 pm • 0 0 • view
I do a lovely, polite "I'm not stopping today!" most of the time which I discovered works better than a silent scowl
aug 28, 2025, 3:36 pm • 0 0 • view
I completely ignore them, TBH
aug 28, 2025, 3:37 pm • 0 0 • view
That was just over three years ago.
aug 28, 2025, 3:21 pm • 3 0 • view
Right, this is the thing, it does actually work! And there are all sorts of good arguments about whether it is ethical, but it works!
aug 28, 2025, 3:23 pm • 3 0 • view
Course it does. They wouldn’t do it if it didn’t.
aug 28, 2025, 3:29 pm • 0 0 • view
It's a good cause of course, I don't think I would have signed up to just anything *suddenly remembers to cancel Standing Order to James Goldsmith's Referendum Party*
aug 28, 2025, 3:26 pm • 5 0 • view
I mean, as I say, when I was doing it, because of the amount the chugging company charges the charity for each sign up, they needed to remain signed up for some time.
aug 28, 2025, 3:29 pm • 0 0 • view
It's the sort of thing you'd think would be embarrassing to actually DO, but because of the type of people who do it... there's no embarrassment. Like, that's who they are. Genuinely best group of colleagues to go out on the piss with in your early 20s. It's like being drowned in charm.
aug 28, 2025, 3:26 pm • 2 0 • view
Yep.
aug 28, 2025, 3:21 pm • 1 0 • view
I am a regular donor to a number of charities as I used the donation sign up process as a way of preparing for digital marketing interviews following my redundancy.
aug 28, 2025, 3:23 pm • 0 0 • view
I regularly see people I worked with at the charity call centre on TV, and one of them won the Perrier award. On the street chugging it was a mixture of that type of personality and people who were just really good looking and/or looked cool. People who were "unappealing" quickly got booted.
aug 28, 2025, 3:19 pm • 1 0 • view
ha ha, that's perfect
aug 28, 2025, 3:10 pm • 1 0 • view
It had the benefit of being true as well. For some godforsaken reason I'd decided that going to Westfield to buy a single button for my sewing project on a Saturday afternoon was a brilliant idea. It was not a brilliant idea.
aug 28, 2025, 4:10 pm • 1 0 • view
Street Hustlers in Rome excused me immediately when I rushed passed him with a "gotta pee". Similar understanding and result.
aug 28, 2025, 4:54 pm • 1 0 • view
ha ha, that's excellent
aug 28, 2025, 3:01 pm • 5 0 • view
Used it on some chuggers chugging in a Dobbies garden centre recently. Spoiler: I did not have fish in the car.
aug 28, 2025, 3:52 pm • 5 0 • view
I use other pedestrians as human shields Shimmying and weaving
aug 28, 2025, 3:55 pm • 4 0 • view
In this context I read that as pescetarians
aug 28, 2025, 3:57 pm • 4 0 • view
Occasional pirouette
aug 28, 2025, 3:56 pm • 1 0 • view
I’m gonna adopt and adapt this for work: “Just give me the fish-in-the-car on this.” “I’ll be there, but let’s make this meeting ‘fish in the car’.”
aug 28, 2025, 11:08 pm • 1 0 • view
I am 💯 going to use this
aug 28, 2025, 3:05 pm • 2 0 • view
Don't know about now, but when I was in the FR sector 15 years ago, received wisdom was they're only worth using if your charity has big brand recognition and (at least) one of the 3 big pull factors: kids, pets, and 'it could happen to me' risk of death (cancer, heart disease, etc)
aug 28, 2025, 12:59 pm • 5 0 • view
I used to do volunteer street collections when a student & we joked that “give puppies to children with cancer” would have had people queuing up to donate.
aug 28, 2025, 2:43 pm • 5 0 • view
youtu.be/E3GGKF6CsjY?...
aug 28, 2025, 10:34 pm • 0 0 • view
ha ha, YES
aug 28, 2025, 10:38 pm • 0 0 • view
Always remember the chuggers who tried to engage me on my way to an appointment and I told them as much. It was an eye test, and obviously didn't take very long, so when I returned one of them actually called me a liar.
aug 28, 2025, 1:11 pm • 1 0 • view
oh my god. What an arsehole. I'd have let the charity he was chugging for know about that.
aug 28, 2025, 2:34 pm • 3 0 • view
I’m baffled they do door knocking- including often at night when it’s dark. Can’t imagine anyone who opens the door is exactly receptive
aug 28, 2025, 12:50 pm • 5 0 • view
If 1% are, and they give £20 a month, then per door you knock that's a mere £2.40 a year for the charity So you'd better manage to knock on a lot of doors, or get a much better hit rate Presumably homes that do give, share a certain vibe and get more knocks?
aug 28, 2025, 1:19 pm • 1 0 • view
I'm convinced that they're really targeting the elderly and vulnerable and, in that respect, are no better than scammers who do the same thing.
aug 28, 2025, 1:55 pm • 8 0 • view
yeah, that's my feeling. They leverage the fact that people are a bit trapped on their own doorstep if they're not robust enough to shut the door in their faces.
aug 28, 2025, 2:38 pm • 3 0 • view
When I went to the London marathon expo I got chugged. I realised later that I was over emotional talking to him about running for my friend who’d died and signed up to a monthly donation. When I thought about it later I felt a bit violated and angry that he’d preyed on emotional weakness.
aug 28, 2025, 4:01 pm • 4 0 • view
Anyway, I cancelled the direct debit because I was so angry about it - which is worse for the charity in the long run :-/
aug 28, 2025, 4:02 pm • 3 0 • view
I particularly hate the insincerity of the greeting. Like they're delighted to spot a long lost friend. I imagine sustaining such fakeness in the face of constant rebuffs must harm the soul.
aug 28, 2025, 7:40 pm • 0 0 • view
ha ha, yes. It's corrosive to everyone involved
aug 28, 2025, 7:41 pm • 0 0 • view
Who in earth would hand their bank details to a some random person harassing you coming out of a tube station.
aug 28, 2025, 12:50 pm • 4 0 • view
yes, quite.
aug 28, 2025, 2:37 pm • 0 0 • view
TBF, doorstep charity peeps are worse. You can't run away from your own doorstep.
aug 28, 2025, 2:39 pm • 3 0 • view
yeah, I particularly despise them: they're leveraging people being too polite to shut the door in their face. (I am not too polite to shut the door in their face.)
aug 28, 2025, 2:40 pm • 7 0 • view
I don’t open the door in the first place. We get a lot of them round our way. If I’m not expecting anyone I just ignore the doorbell; if I think it might be someone I actually want to speak to, I ask who it is before opening the door. If it’s chuggers, it’s a firm “no thanks” and back to the sofa!
aug 28, 2025, 5:00 pm • 2 0 • view
It's a real downside of gentrification. When we moved here, nobody rang the doorbell (except the police to warn us about incidents). Now it's doorstep chuggers and veg box/ meal kit people every day.
aug 28, 2025, 2:47 pm • 1 0 • view
"this neighbourhood has gone up in the world and is now clearly full of bleeding-heart liberal marks"
aug 28, 2025, 2:54 pm • 3 0 • view
The turning point was when I saw a Tate bag in the gutter and realised even the rubbish was going upmarket
aug 28, 2025, 4:19 pm • 2 0 • view
my video doorbel has saved me a few times. also, the latrst greeting they teach in chugging school "dont worry, nothing to worry about"
aug 28, 2025, 2:42 pm • 1 0 • view
ugh, ugh.
aug 28, 2025, 2:54 pm • 1 0 • view
I hate standing order, direct debit demands. I would give them a couple of quid as a one off.
aug 28, 2025, 3:04 pm • 1 0 • view
They must be.
aug 28, 2025, 12:48 pm • 1 0 • view
The doorstep chuggers inevitably ring the bell as soon as my toddler has fallen asleep/ I’m giving her a bath/ a meal. It sends the dog into a frenzy so chaos descends. Mind you, maybe allowing an irate dachshund to have a go at their ankles would put them off for good…
aug 28, 2025, 3:36 pm • 2 0 • view
oh, you should definitely let her have a go at their ankles
aug 28, 2025, 3:38 pm • 2 0 • view
I detest them. They bring out unhealthy levels of aggression in me.
aug 28, 2025, 3:08 pm • 2 0 • view
Unfortunately they do bring in donations
aug 28, 2025, 12:53 pm • 1 0 • view
If they approach me, I just tell them “I already donate to [charity]”, which stops them immediately.
aug 28, 2025, 3:42 pm • 1 0 • view