Sheep magazine Archive 2: issues 10-17

I’ve seen aggressive and deceitful fundraisers
at work. I’ve heard every gimmick; it’s OK
to cancel after the first month; this won’t
start for six to eight weeks; this is a one-off
donation; all your donations go to people
in the local area. However, fundraising isn’t
intrinsically aggressive, just as the majority
of fundraisers aren’t intrinsically deceitful
people. There are ways to get people excited
about supporting a cause without deceit.
Unfortunately, we sometimes get lazy, or
desperate, and I understand how easy it is,
in those circumstances, to cross the moral
boundary. We are constantly presented with
moral dilemmas. Can this person afford it?
Does this person understand what they are
signing up to? It’s easy to make the wrong call
or be forceful, especially when we’re having a
bad day. It’s a thin ethical line we tread.
So what are the consequences for deviating
from codes of best practice? It all depends
on the values of the fundraiser. There is
an underlying sense that, if my number of
sign-ups is high enough, bad practice will
be overlooked, not only by the fundraising
bosses, but also by the charities themselves.
This tacit acceptance only reinforces a culture
of unethical fundraising.
As for oversaturation, a lady recently
remarked: “We have people knocking two or
three times a week! Is it because we live on a
council estate?” It is universally acknowledged
that there are areas which are better to work
in than others. It seems counterintuitive to
mine the poorest for donations, but it is from
the most deprived communities that we see
the best response. Fundraisers rub their hands
when they see a council estate. They don’t see
scarcity. They see sign-ups.
We are constantly presented with moral
dilemmas. Can this person afford it? Do they
understand what they're agreeing to?
People here tend to be easier to talk to and
act with readier impulse. And so we go back
to the same areas over and over again. We
even avoid more affluent districts, where
people don’t mind giving but hate being
approached and the responses are, if not
hostile, condescending. Here, we’re never far
off being reported to the police (these areas
aren’t used to seeing fundraisers), which is
time-consuming if we’re stopped and sends
the wrong impression to the neighbours.
City centre apartments are the only exception
to that rule. They’re filled with impressionable
twenty-somethings with plenty of disposable
income. But knocking apartments is a risky
strategy. It’s a race against time before I’m
forcibly removed by the concierge.
31
MAY DAY 2016