Charities hit back after call to ban on-street collectors

CHARITIES have hit back after their collectors were branded "worse than beggars" in the city centre.

Save The Children and the WWF were among those to defend the so-called "chuggers" who generally target Princes Street to get people to sign up to charity direct debits.

The Evening News told yesterday how Tom Campbell, chief executive of Essential Edinburgh, had called for a crackdown on the street fundraisers.

He said: "Beggars are to some extent passive, but those who represent charities are not passive. I don't think they are doing their brand any good at all."

However, Save the Children said that its "chuggers" provided an "important way to raise money and awareness". Spokeswoman Beverley Kirk said: "Street fund-raising is one of the most cost effective ways to recruit new direct debit supporters.

"The supporters we recruit on the street provide an average of 115 in the first year and a large number will continue to support us in the years that follow.

"All of our fundraisers are regulated by the Public Fundraising Regulatory Authority and operate under strict guidelines.

"They receive training on our mission, values and history and are taught to be polite, taught not to upset anyone and not to push the point if they are told no."

Mr Campbell's comments provoked a heated debate amongst Evening News readers yesterday, with some commentators pointing out that it was "irresponsible" to hand out direct debit details to a stranger in the street.

Ms Kirk added that all Save The Children fundraisers wore branded clothing and carried identity badges, and said that their credentials could easily be confirmed by phoning the charity.

Animal charity WWF also condemned the comments. A spokeswoman said: "Face-to-face methods of recruiting new supporters take many forms and on the whole are successful and cost effective ways to raise funds.

"Our experience is that the majority of new sign-ups are happy with how they were approached."

Several charities told the Evening News, however, that they no longer employed "chuggers".

A spokeswoman for Oxfam said that while it recently employed street campaigners to take names for its "I'm In" petition to fight world injustice, it stopped using them for fundraising in 2008.

She added: "We decided to concentrate on other methods to gain support for Oxfam's work."

Friends of the Earth Scotland said it had also ceased employing "chuggers" for fundraising.