Chuggers

A chugger is someone, usually a young someone, working for a charity out and about in towns, trying to raise funds for the charity. They do not collect money, but they try to get people to sign up to commit to donating a regular sum every month. My son worked for a while at doing this, although he was on a house to house scheme. He was so excited and optimistic when he started; he was working, and he was working ethically, and what he hoped he would achieve was support and funds to help people less fortunate than himself. So good-hearted. Disillusion soon set in; he was not actually working for the charity he was trying to raise awareness for, but for a company employed by the charity. He was set impossible targets which would have encouraged some people to put pressure on those they were trying to interest. He was almost bullied by the team leader, who in turn was under pressure from those above. Fortunately for my son it was only a temporary holiday job… but it certainly showed us the other side of charitable fund-raising.

Back to chuggers; most chuggers seem to be enthusiastic young people, friendly and bright, trying their hardest, as my son did, to help the charity and earn money themselves. However, there is a darker side; chuggers sometimes use emotional blackmail to try to get people to sign up to donate to the charity, and they are almost pestering people, and I see them trapping the unwary and engaging them in conversation about the particular charity, and I have actually seen them trying to bully people into signing up.

I regularly give to charity; I regularly donate good quality items including good as new books, CDs and DVDs to charity shops, I respond to specific appeals to meet the needs of people suffering disaster. When I was working I contributed to several charities of my choice, regularly, every month. I don’t want to walk down the High Street and be accosted by people, however lovely and nice and caring, trying to raise my awareness of issues. It’s one thing for charities to have ‘flag days’ where passers-by stick money in a tin, but I really don’t like this more interactive style of raising funds.