Why I feel bad about my latest charity donation…

I have signed up to support another charity – and am suffering already from donor remorse.

I was wandering around a consumer show yesterday afternoon when I was surprised to see a charity stand. It seemed incongruous among the other stalls, which were selling high price goods, although on reflection it made perfect sense – why shouldn’t they be there? 

The first mistake I made was to make eye contact with someone on the stand. Next, I engaged in conversation – an attempt to tell them I wasn’t interested. He responded by telling me they were way down on their expected number of sign-ups at that point in a show (about 60 per cent). I felt my resolve crumbling.

What really sealed the deal was the line -‘you don’t have to do it for long’, which I thought wasn’t allowed, and certainly isn’t a line that a charity would want promoted. But from that point on I was a goner.

To be honest, I felt a little bullied into it. I walked away from the stand a future £8 a month down and already regretting my decision. I was also calculating how long I could afford to support the charity and weighing up which of my other five charity donations I may have to cancel in order to accommodate this new direct debit.

I’m not naming the show or charity as I don’t want to get this individual into trouble. I was, in part, impressed and won over by his passion for the cause. He was directly employed by the charity and it showed.

But perhaps, because he wasn’t an agency personnel, he wasn’t as aware of the rules and regulations that govern face-to-face fundraising. He was also so desperate to increase the total number of sign-ups that he would resort to saying anything to overcome my shakey resistance.

I’ve decided to give them a few months and then review it later this year. But I don’t feel good about it. And surely that matters – doesn’t it?