I screen all my calls now. I have found they don’t leave a voice message. If it was something else they would leave a voice message. The latest has been a door knock with them trying to get me to set up an automatic monthly payment for a children’s charity I told them I was happy to give a donation there and then which they wouldn’t accept. I refused to give them my bank details they were quite insistent that I do that. Now I don’t give anything except local fund raisers usually run by Lions or Lioness organisations. A do not call would be great.
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I give to one charity early in the year and that’s it,which is about $70. Then all other calls get a “I have given for this year” response and I hang up. Even the charity I give to has rung more than once and gets a knock back. The worst thing you can do is feel bad about the knockback. DON’T!!!
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What these charities hate is when you return to sender because they have to pay for the return mail.They soon stop sending mail.
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I’ve installed a Spam Blocker app on my phone that does a good job of detecting incoming calls that I don’t want to answer. I did this after getting bombarded with calls from the MS organisation in Perth. I’ve often sold raffle tickets for them, and bought tickets in their big $100 draws, but I still get on average 1 or 2 calls every week. They just don’t give up, and even though I like to support the cause, I hate being bugged constantly and it deters me from helping, rather than encouraging me.
Since installing the app all their calls are immediately blocked, along with others who are suspect.
The app has a feature that enables you to look at comments other people have posted about the caller. If the call is not spam, you can always call back if you choose to.
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That’s terrible. I make lots of automatic monthly donations and have never had this said or happen to me. Good move by you.
And the other one is real estate agents. We are on the Do Not Call register but I would get a few calls a month from them. Ray White seems to be the worst offender.
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I agree. I had no idea that so little goes to the the charities from these professional collectors! There are a number of shopping mall charity booths staffed by enthusiastic young people - it is pretty obvious that they are paid collectors. I might be wrong but two that seemed to me to have paid collectors in shopping centres have been Amnesty and the Paralympics. After donating to those in the past, I now avoid them as the sales pitch just feels like a commercial operation. It’s a shame as both are very good causes (as is Surf Life Saving.)
This is actually illegal in Australia. (Or so I was told by a donation-collecting door knocker just the other day)
I recently asked CBM to let me know what portion of any donation actually goes to the intended needy. At least 2 weeks and NOT even an acknowledgement. Are all charities as reluctant to tell the truth?
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I am constantly bombarded with requests for money to such an extent I was getting up to 7 per day. With the introduction of the “Do not call” it has reduced it to about 3 per week, however even that number is way too much, skirting around the do not call as a charity is an impost.
Another that is able to beat the do not call is overseas callers with solar and accident inquiries running up the annoyance in useless calls.
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Like other posters in this thread we make a reasonably substantial annual contribution to a few charities, rather than making a bunch of smaller contributions throughout the year more or less on a whim. Surely this reduces the overhead to the charity, as it’s just a matter of processing one payment; they don’t have to send junk email or pay collectors to repeat-call.
When we choose the charities we try to confirm that they will take us off their cold-call/junk mail list and our details won’t be shared with other charities or collection agencies. We really just have to trust what they say, though.
Perhaps this is where Choice could help? Could you publish a code of conduct along these lines, along with a list of Australian charities that have agreed to abide by it. Like the ‘stocking density’ that you publish for free-range egg suppliers it would rely on self-reporting, but vigilant subscribers could always report on charities that are not following the code.
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A code of conduct is a good idea.
In view of the various comments from others about the proportion of the donated dollar which goes ‘direct’ to the intended beneficiaries, it would be appropriate for charities as part of their code of conduct to publish this. And to have, as part of this code, the method for calculating this ‘proportion’. Although I note that Choice has written about this idea, and code of conducts, at:
I am not sure I agree fully with Emma Tomkinson quoted in that article. I agree that such proportions should not be the primary criteria for selecting a charity. There are many other factors we use. But the information should be made available along with other information provided by charities to explain why donors should contribute. This could include stating that their proportion of costs is higher than others, but then substantiating why their impact might be greater than other charities with a lower proportion of costs. It should be part of each charity’s mix of disclosure, code of conduct and other reasons why they should receive the donation dollar, and what they can do with it when they get it.
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I regularly get requests for donations in the mail and if I don’t respond it is followed up with a phone call they bombard me with information and do not even listen to what I have to say. I usually ask if they are looking for a donation and say I am not in a position to make a donation, they do not listen to me but continue the hard sell. Also when I ask if they are looking for a donation they sometimes say no but would I sell some raffle tickets. I do not believe in selling raffle tickets to friends and say as far as I am concerned it would be a donation. I even wrote return to sender on a letter and got another begging letter followed by a phone call. I hate saying no but I am a pensioner and have limited funds and it makes me feel bad to say no. I do a lot of charity work and have a select number of charities that I support which does not include ones that would use a large amount of my donation for admin costs and fancy big buildings.
I have got to the stage where I do not answer my phone any more. My friends and family know to leave a message and I get back to them. I should not have to do this!!
I am on a do not call register, so as far as I am concerned this should included charities but I am told it does not. I feel this is a grose invasion of my privacy.
The law needs to be changed to include charities who pray on vulnerable people.
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My wife answered a phone call one evening from United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the caller asked if she would like to take part in a survey. My wife answered the survey questions and thought that was the end of it ----------- wrong.
Night after night we were overwhelmed with the amount phone calls we received from different charity’s asking for money, you could say we were harassed. What part of the word NO do these people not understand. Months later we are still receiving phone calls from United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, They will not take no for an answer, we ask for them to not keep calling, it falls on deaf ears. As much as it goes against the grain we just have to be rude and hang up and hope they get the message.
I’m currently receiving calls , up to 9 a day from a marketing company called EMS research . I have requested , well more like pleaded , for them to leave me alone . They kept phoning so tomorrow with luck I, and a few friends , will set up our Skype settings on a loop and phone them continuously . They route their calls from an offshore call centre to an 02 number in Australia . We all have unlimited call accounts within Australia :)) Arghhh revenge will be sweet ." As you seek so shall yo find "
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I too get unsolicited emails, phone calls, snail mail & door knockers. I have a different approach.
With the door knockers I have a camera attached to the door bell so I just ignore them, they go away pretty quickly if the door is not answered.
With email I have an invoice template which I complete with a unsolicited
Email fee & send it back to them, I have never received any payment but I don’t usually get any further correspondence.
With phone calls I have a few ways of dealing with them 1 - answer the call when I know who they are I put it on speaker phone walk away & come back 10 minutes later, they have always gone by then. 2 - start singing on the line, I am a terrible singer so they hang up after a while. 3 - start talking in what sounds like an Asian language, they hang up pretty quickly.
With snail mail I usually open the letter fill it up with junk mail or just rubbish & send it back. I have also thought of forwarding it on to my sitting polly with a note saying as you will not put these charities in the do not call register I will be forwarding all unsolicited
Mail for you to deal with. Does anybody think this would help & would it be worth starting a campaign with this in mind
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I no longer donate to charities except for a few selected that cover child welfare, the environment and social justice. I donate directly to them. The charities I chose do the stuff they say they do and are content with what you give them. There are never any demands etc dictating how much you should give them or nagging to be put in your will.
Many charities now are no longer really active in what they originally started out as and are collecting for the ske of revenue raising which gets invested in stocks and shares.
Also, they never show pubicly their annual audits and what assets and incomes they have and what there expenses are.
The biggest question I have related to medical research. Some organisations have been collecting for well over 50 years claiming they raise the funds for medical research, developing drugs etc but who ends u making the profit on the discoveries from patents and royalties? Surely those charities who have funded research should be getting royalties from drug companies etc. How many drugs have been developed as a result of public donations yet remain very expensive.
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Steve1959, I love your persistence! 
I too ignore door knockers. (It turned out I had also been ignoring a Sherriff who was after a border of mine who had not being paying her fines, but I can’t justify a camera to check!) I am battling to get to a mailbox to return letters to sender, let alone fill it with junk mail!
A common thread emerging in a number of posts (especially regarding phone calls) is the desire for charities to be added to the “do not call register”. I am inclined to agree with this idea, and maybe Choice could run a petition to determine if this is something which would be wanted by people. I suspect such a petition would get good support!
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@pluto, we’re about to release some research related to nuisance calls that is relevant to this thread. Keep an eye out for more soon.
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While I understand why the ‘Do not call’ register doesn’t include charities and political callers, I just wish both would understand that I don’t want to hear from them, and have no intention of donating to any unsolicited organisation.
I do donate, to a few charities that I approached, because I support their goals.
From what I read on this feed, there would be wholesale support to have charity and political callers added to the register, and perhaps a comprehensive survey could be conducted to verify this giving support to changes in the legislation. Choice?
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