Dear Urban Diplomat: How should I respond to overzealous street fundraisers?
Dear Urban Diplomat,
I was shopping on Queen West recently and was accosted in three separate instances by those relentlessly cheerful street fundraisers. Aren’t there rules governing these people? They’re everywhere. More important: what am I supposed to say to them? My go-to tactic—ignoring them—makes me feel guilty.
—Way Over Asking, The Danforth
Urban diplomacy can be taxing, sweaty work. After a long day patrolling the city for decorum breaches, sometimes I don’t feel like saving any rainforests or orphans. If a charity mugger approaches on a day like that, I pull out my cell and fake a phone call—mostly because if I break stride or say anything else, they’ll unleash their rhetorical magic on me, and suddenly I’m a platinum-level donor. If you’re looking for an honest way out, just smile and say, “Not today,” and pick up the pace. As far as laws go, there aren’t any. Provided the chuggers aren’t clogging the sidewalk or harassing passersby, they can solicit with impunity.
Send your questions to the Urban Diplomat at urbandiplomat@torontolife.com
Usually I’m a smiley happy guy, but to these charity muggers (I like that term) I give ’em the dirtiest dirty look they ever seen. They don’t bug me.
I don’t like to do it, and I do feel bad for the individuals in our economy who have to do this kind of work. I feel even worse for the charities and their clients, who aren’t being served properly by all levels of government. The solution is better government funded services, not accosting taxpayers on the street for money which will inevitably come from the middle and lower class folks who just don’t know how to say no, without regard to their income.
I understand that it may be a little frustrating that someone is interrupting your walk for a few seconds (if you do not decide to talk) or a few minutes (if you decide to talk).
However, as a street fundraiser myself, I feel insulted that you are pitying my job. I’m a medical school student – and I am in no way forced into this job due to our economy. This is a job that I chose to commit myself to because of my long history of non-profit work and international development abroad. Street fundraising is simply a perfect extension of this passion and a method to continue my contribution back in Canada. Let me tell you that most of my co-workers are also passionate; hence, why we do NOT work on commission. Above all, it has taught me how to deal with a range of individuals from people who thank us for our work to fellows who cannot dish out a respectful rejection.
It’s so easy for individuals to make assumptions regarding our work but are you really in-the-know regarding this topic (have you even stopped to listen to us?)? It is actually a policy that we are not guilt-tripping individuals into contributing (the organization I work for at least). I have signed up millionaires, middle-income folks who are more than capable to contribute a little bit every month, and lower-income folks who despite their difficulties realize this is something they want to do.
I would like to say that most of the organizations that fundraise on the street are international agencies, which I don’t understand how government funded services are relevant. Unless you are talking about improving developing countries’ government capacity, which is so much easier than done – so why not put money where our mouths are and support some of this transition.
The best way to deter street fundraisers? Let us know you are already committed to development agencies, healthcare causes, or animal causes. Canvassers respect that you have your own causes, and will tell you how awesome of a person you truly are and let you go off on your way.
… if that is too much, the least you can do is smile, say “No thank you” and keep walking.
They’re a damned pain in the backside in the UK as well. “Let us know you are already committed to development agencies, healthcare causes, or animal causes” – Sorry dude, but that’s none of your business and I happily boycott any organisation that uses this very intrusive method of raising funds.
… so for your comfort walking down the streets in UK, you would be happy to boycott organizations that are saving millions of lives in developing nations? Isn’t this a little much?
Sorry Jay, but by implying that by boycotting organisations that use fundraising tactics I do not approve of I am somehow against the work of saving “millions of lives” you are using an emotive argument which is a pretty disgraceful tactic. I actually find this quite offensive. I might remind you that I, like a lot people, have “strike-out” factors when deciding what charities to support (because it’s impossible to support them all). Charities that use street fundraisers are one of my strike-out factors. I’ll just support an organisation that doesn’t feel it necessary to harass me in the street (and there’s plenty of alternatives that use other ways of engaging with people). I’ll also use my own resources to weigh up different organisations to come to an objective and informed decision rather than be swayed by a pitch made to me on the street.
It may also interest you to know that I used to be sympathetic towards street fundraising. However for a period of a time in my home city I was approached by the same charities over and over again (sometimes several times in a single day, and several times in a single week) who would use a number of unnecessary methods to try and get my attention. After becoming “fatigued” and deciding I was tired of being seen as a walking direct debit every time I set foot outside my front door I took the decision to turn my back on those organisations who thought it acceptable to repeatedly approach me day after day – and sometimes in very intrusive and over familiar ways. In short, I am perfectly entitled to boycott any charity that uses this method and I think you should understand that not everyone appreciates this type of tactic – however that does not mean they are uncharitable.
If you had responded to me in the street as you just have in your reply I think I’d be asking to speak to your manager about “guilt tripping” because my expectation is that a street fundraiser would respect me enough to accept my reasons for not supporting a specific charity. Certainly I wouldn’t tolerate an employee of any organisation making such an insinuation in public if I had offered my response as a firm rebuke to their approach and I find it very, very sad that you use such an ill thought out argument in your response.
Such a horrible waste of manpower.
“Canvassers respect that you have your own causes, and will tell you how awesome of a person you truly are and let you go off on your way.”
Who are you to “Let us go off on our way”? Do we have to prove that we donate to some sort of charity before we are allowed to continue on walking? I thought Canada was a free country. You sound like Nazi SS guards who stop people on the street and make sure they are indeed Aryan before “letting them go on their way.”
Please remember that street canvassers are only doing their job. Unlike real street harassers, they aren’t out to ruin your day. They are entitled to the most basic level of human respect (seeing as how they are actual human beings). If they’re being polite to you, be polite back- eye contact, smile, barest acknowledgment of their existence, go on with your day.
Okay, cat out of the bag time. Most of the canvassers you encounter do not actually work for the charity they are representing. In this city, they are more than likely employed by Public Outreach, a company that provides canvassers to various organizations. One day you’re shilling for the WWF, the next day it’s Amnesty International. That means that the behaviour of the individual canvasser is NOT AT ALL reflective of the organization they’re trying to talk to you about. “Boycotting” that organization will accomplish nothing. You ‘ll have to find another excuse not to give to charity.