

Law to target aggressive fundraising by charities - druml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33490964

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batou
The one time I dumped a £3 donation via SMS my number was basically call
bombed afterwards. After the 15th call in under 24 hours, some at unsociable
hours, I took the SIM out and threw it away and signed up for another giffgaff
account (I have a few SIMs lying around). This was for one of those
"international crisis" ones.

I tend to tell them all to bugger off now. If you're going to shit on me for
being nice, I don't want to know.

My mother was a victim as well. Had someone call her all sorts of names for
cancelling a direct debit that they'd "miscalculated" on purpose. I managed to
get the caller's identity and company and sent a nasty email to their
directors. Got a cheque back for the lot. Sod the charity.

~~~
linuxydave
yeah, it gets frustrating when you're bombarded with calls by them as well as
those PPI/whatever robocalls.

I've cancelled my donations to several charities because of their harassment
and their pushiness makes me wonder if they are actually using their money on
the people they're claiming to help :/

~~~
milesskorpen
In many cases, they aren't: [https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-red-
cross-raised-...](https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-red-cross-raised-
half-a-billion-dollars-for-haiti-and-built-6-homes)

~~~
batou
This doesn't surprise me. Back in about 2002 the company i worked for built a
shitty intranet for a major high street charity in the UK. Cost them
£100,000...

~~~
linuxydave
I'm in the wrong job... :p

~~~
batou
Everyone's in the right job. You just have to find customers who don't know
how much everyone else charges :)

~~~
linuxydave
Haha, cynical but true. Reminds me of this:
[http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Free-State-govt-We-
pa...](http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Free-State-govt-We-
paid-R40m-for-website-20130304) (R40m is ~$3,211,291)

~~~
batou
Wow now that's special!

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roflchoppa
Shame, I'm just trying to have the red cross stop calling my house about blood
donations.. ill give blood, just stop calling me.

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richmarr
The fundamental problem here is that the charitable sector is packed full of
moral hazard, broken incentivisation, inefficiency, lack of transparency, and
ignorance of customer needs.

There are very few markets where I'm willing to go as far as using the word
"broken". One is insurance (which is why I helped found Guevara) the other is
charity.

