Aggressive charities in the dock

The charity watchdog has jumped to the defence of the industry after a study claimed donors are being put off supporting good causes because of aggressive marketing tactics.
According to the study by the shopping and fundraising website easyfundraising.org.uk, nearly 40% of people have stopped supporting a charity because of the way it fundraises.
More than 1,000 UK adults took part in the survey, which was run on the website in May. It found that 39.7% of people said ‘yes’ when asked if they had ever stopped supporting a charity because of the way it tried to raise funds.
It also asked respondents, 70% of whom were female, to select the methods of fundraising they thought were the most aggressive.
Some 54% chose doorstep campaigners, 44% chose high-street chuggers and 43% said phone calls to the home.
When asked specifically whether chuggers had ever put respondents off supporting the charity they were representing, 60% said they had.
But the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association says online poll was unrepresentative and asked leading questions. A spokesman for the organisation said the survey was based on unsatisfactory data.
“It’s not a representative sample and it asks a lot of leading questions,” he said. “If people have evidence of bad practice, we’ll always take it seriously. Face-to-face fundraising brings in more than 600,000 new donors every year.”

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