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You may have seen charity boxes in many small shops. Large shops have tended to refuse permission to charities to leave then in as an increasing amount of thieves have begun to target them. We still have a few.
We took the decision to support the RNLI a long time ago and to limit the numbers of the other charity boxes. The others are left in one area where they can be seen and people occasionally put money in them. The RNLI, though, is the one we do a little work for.
People want to put up posters in shop windows. We're not using the space for anything else and posters look like special offers, especially since few people actually read them. I saw a report that said that research had proved this works - people just assume that they are special offers. Curious but quite likely, when you think about it. However, for this we charge people - for a six week stint in the window for their poster, they have to donate something to the lifeboat box. We don't have any set amount but find that emotional blackmail works perfectly well. In nearly nine years we've raised the best part of two thousand pounds.
Today we had someone who wanted to put a poster up. The Boss pointed out the box and explained the situation - a donation and we're happy and we'll even supply the blu-tack.
"But this is for charity," the woman protested.
"So's the lifeboat box," the Boss told her. She grumbled but paid up.
The problem is that we've gone through this time and again. One woman got as far as this but didn't pay up.
"Well," she said, visibly offended, "I don't have any money on me. I'll have to come back with some later." She put the poster on our counter and walked out.
We watched her go. Two minutes later, we watched her come back.
"You've not put my poster up!" she cried, accurate to the tenth decimal point.
"When something goes in the lifeboat, the poster goes up," we informed her. We've had people just not turning up with the promised cash before. We're not going to go much out of our way to work for a charity but we're also not going to be mugs on their behalf.
Oddly enough, the woman in that case didn't say a word. She just snatched the poster back and stalked off.
Businesses tend to get a reasonable number of phone calls from charities begging for money for sponsorship. We're no different. Certain wards of local hospitals occasionally ask for contributions - that's right, hospitals who are funded by the NHS which happens to be the biggest employer in the country. The Boss informed one telebeggar that he's already contributed through his National Insurance so could they leave him alone? They did.
One charity sent a box with us and keeps sending letters asking for us to bring it into their offices unopened. Do they have a volunteer who can pop over once a year or so? Apparently not. They expect us to be their volunteer for them. We'd have to go several miles out of our way and the letters keep ending up in the bin for no fathomable reason. Many charities seem to take the line that we have a duty to do their work as well as our own.
Charity is big business. "Make your will out to us!" "A Legacy can help others!" "How you can benefit the needy by dying! Our leaflet tells you how!" I'll drop loose change into a box now and then, but when the executives of a charity earn more than the yearly turnover of our shop then you can consider my attitude jaundiced.
With the size of the business in mind, however, it's no wonder that they start young. A girl of perhaps thirteen years of age walked in one evening as we were pulling everything away. She stood in the doorway for a few moments, blocking it. We glanced at her curiously but she did nothing so we ignored her.
"I'm doing a sponsored walk," she said eventually.
The Boss looked at me. I looked at him. Neither of us liked what we saw but that's genetics for you. We then turned our gazes on the girl. She looked back at us and said nothing. The Boss and I shrugged, waiting for the next part. Would it be, "Please," "Thank you," or, "By your elbow"?
She remained silent until she walked away. We're in business. We don't give away money without a receipt, a formal request, statement of account or big Bambi eyes. With none of the above she got nothing.
I remarked on this to the newsagent the next day.
"She came in here as well," he told me. The result? "I asked her what charity it was for. 'I've not decided yet,' she replied." Oddly enough she got nothing there either.
I suppose that the runner-up in the competition for sheer cheek (the girl above coming first) must have been the woman who was helping out at a charity event. Her golf club was having an 'event' and could we supply them with a fruit basket as a raffle prize? No 'please' or 'thank you', but the bigger the better.
We made one up and she collected it on the appropriate day. We mentioned this to one or two other people who happened to go to that club and they were looking forward to the event.
Two weeks later the woman in question came back. How had the event been?
"Oh," the woman replied, waving a hand airly for such matters were beneath her. "I didn't bother going to *that*."
We think she caught the look on our faces for she never asked again.
Rapscallion
We took the decision to support the RNLI a long time ago and to limit the numbers of the other charity boxes. The others are left in one area where they can be seen and people occasionally put money in them. The RNLI, though, is the one we do a little work for.
People want to put up posters in shop windows. We're not using the space for anything else and posters look like special offers, especially since few people actually read them. I saw a report that said that research had proved this works - people just assume that they are special offers. Curious but quite likely, when you think about it. However, for this we charge people - for a six week stint in the window for their poster, they have to donate something to the lifeboat box. We don't have any set amount but find that emotional blackmail works perfectly well. In nearly nine years we've raised the best part of two thousand pounds.
Today we had someone who wanted to put a poster up. The Boss pointed out the box and explained the situation - a donation and we're happy and we'll even supply the blu-tack.
"But this is for charity," the woman protested.
"So's the lifeboat box," the Boss told her. She grumbled but paid up.
The problem is that we've gone through this time and again. One woman got as far as this but didn't pay up.
"Well," she said, visibly offended, "I don't have any money on me. I'll have to come back with some later." She put the poster on our counter and walked out.
We watched her go. Two minutes later, we watched her come back.
"You've not put my poster up!" she cried, accurate to the tenth decimal point.
"When something goes in the lifeboat, the poster goes up," we informed her. We've had people just not turning up with the promised cash before. We're not going to go much out of our way to work for a charity but we're also not going to be mugs on their behalf.
Oddly enough, the woman in that case didn't say a word. She just snatched the poster back and stalked off.
Businesses tend to get a reasonable number of phone calls from charities begging for money for sponsorship. We're no different. Certain wards of local hospitals occasionally ask for contributions - that's right, hospitals who are funded by the NHS which happens to be the biggest employer in the country. The Boss informed one telebeggar that he's already contributed through his National Insurance so could they leave him alone? They did.
One charity sent a box with us and keeps sending letters asking for us to bring it into their offices unopened. Do they have a volunteer who can pop over once a year or so? Apparently not. They expect us to be their volunteer for them. We'd have to go several miles out of our way and the letters keep ending up in the bin for no fathomable reason. Many charities seem to take the line that we have a duty to do their work as well as our own.
Charity is big business. "Make your will out to us!" "A Legacy can help others!" "How you can benefit the needy by dying! Our leaflet tells you how!" I'll drop loose change into a box now and then, but when the executives of a charity earn more than the yearly turnover of our shop then you can consider my attitude jaundiced.
With the size of the business in mind, however, it's no wonder that they start young. A girl of perhaps thirteen years of age walked in one evening as we were pulling everything away. She stood in the doorway for a few moments, blocking it. We glanced at her curiously but she did nothing so we ignored her.
"I'm doing a sponsored walk," she said eventually.
The Boss looked at me. I looked at him. Neither of us liked what we saw but that's genetics for you. We then turned our gazes on the girl. She looked back at us and said nothing. The Boss and I shrugged, waiting for the next part. Would it be, "Please," "Thank you," or, "By your elbow"?
She remained silent until she walked away. We're in business. We don't give away money without a receipt, a formal request, statement of account or big Bambi eyes. With none of the above she got nothing.
I remarked on this to the newsagent the next day.
"She came in here as well," he told me. The result? "I asked her what charity it was for. 'I've not decided yet,' she replied." Oddly enough she got nothing there either.
I suppose that the runner-up in the competition for sheer cheek (the girl above coming first) must have been the woman who was helping out at a charity event. Her golf club was having an 'event' and could we supply them with a fruit basket as a raffle prize? No 'please' or 'thank you', but the bigger the better.
We made one up and she collected it on the appropriate day. We mentioned this to one or two other people who happened to go to that club and they were looking forward to the event.
Two weeks later the woman in question came back. How had the event been?
"Oh," the woman replied, waving a hand airly for such matters were beneath her. "I didn't bother going to *that*."
We think she caught the look on our faces for she never asked again.
Rapscallion
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