Observations on charity collections

Deciding whether to give to charity while shopping used to be a simple matter of grabbing a fistful of coppers, or patting empty pockets with a shake of the head, "sorry, no change". These days it's like running the gauntlet.

Any walk along the high streets of the UK's major cities has become a slalom of apologies, excuses or reluctant agreements with clipboard-wielding bright young things wearing their best smiles and the coloured tabard of whichever charity they're collecting standing orders for this week. This is charity mugging, or "chugging" as it has become known.

If the beautiful people stopping you in the street look like they're acting up just to get your donation, that's because they are. Many face-to-face fundraising agencies recruit through the jobs pages in The Stage. Whether that's to get the most outgoing people, or the most desperate out-of-work actors, is not clear. But most pay badly, by the hour, with commissions for every new supporter signed up.

Now the government has apparently woken up to the chugging nuisance. Until now, chugging has been entirely legal because, as long as they don't actually take our notes and coins, the law allows charities to collect donation pledges and standing orders on the street without local authority permission.

The Cabinet Office, however, has proposed a national public collections licence, which all but the smallest charities will have to obtain before fundraising on the pavement. The proposals will oblige local authorities to look at the background of charities and their policies for recruiting street fundraisers.

In general, charities welcome the idea. They may earn a lot from face-to-face fundraising - on average, according to Shelter, supporters recruited on the streets stay loyal for five or six years - but they also acknowledge the wider damage done when donors keep having to cross the street to avoid being asked to sign up. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and ActionAid are both looking at alternative high-income fundraising streams for that reason. "In the present climate, I'm not happy being out there on the street potentially alienating people who would otherwise be our supporters," said James Kliffen, MSF's director of fundraising.

Charities hope that local authorities will be advised not to over-license. Street fundraising is not financially viable if there are too many charities collecting on one street.

But in the friendly agreement be-tween charities and government on this issue, one factor seems to have been overlooked. At the same time as they make charity street collections more legitimate, ministers want to crack down directly on where charity could be most needed - in the pocket change handed to people who beg on the street. Antisocial behaviour legislation, now going through parliament, will make begging a recordable offence. If the bill is passed, homeless people who ask for change to spend on food or shelter - or indeed alcohol and drugs - are likely to find themselves arrested, even sent to jail. But prisons do not have the services to deal with the causes of begging, such as poverty, addiction and mental illness.

So it will be all right to beg, but only so long as you have a clipboard and a winning smile. Perhaps the government should think again.

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