Why I hate chuggers

Ever asked yourself "How much do chuggers get paid?" - I'll forgive you if the answer is no, because for me the answer was no too for quite a long time.  For those who don't know what a chugger is, it's a portmanteau of "charity" and "mugger" and refers to any person who stands usually in the street and approaches random people for donations to charities.  They often have charity goblets or just a bucket for the money to go into, however some go further than this and ask people in the street to set up direct debits to donate to a charity on a regular basis.

The reason I hate chuggers is because of that question and its answer.  Up until last year I was like the majority of people who just walk passed chuggers and don't engage, finding them annoying more than anything but paying them very little thought beyond how to avoid them.  That was until last year when a charity which shall remain nameless for legal reasons asked a friend to become a chugger.  Now up until that point I never really stopped to think about that question, how much they get paid, so I am not sure what I actually thought the answer was.  I guess in some respects since it is a charity you half expect the chuggers to be volunteers, but in most cases they are not.  They are indeed paid.

Chuggers are generally paid on a commission basis, with the rate fluctuating depending on the amount they collect.  This one charity which I will not name, employs its chuggers in London to stand in the streets with buckets collecting money.  If they collect less than £75 in donations that day, they are paid 40% of what they collect, and if they collect more than £75 in that day they are paid 60% of what they collect.  Yes, you read that right, they are paid from the donations, and yes, if it is over £75 they are paid more than half of the figure meaning more money goes to the chugger than the actual cause.

If you were to stand outside Oxford Circus and managed to collect £500 in that day, then you would earn £300 for the day from this particular charity with the remaining £200 going to the cause.  Now in the interest of fairness I should state I have made posts in the past that have been critical of charities and the way they operate, particularly in reference to the senior staff members who are paid six figure salaries for their work.  I take issue with being pressed to donate to a charity where the bulk of my money is going to the pockets of the people running the charity and not to the cause itself.

This was only one charity that paid 40%/60% to their chuggers, as far as others are concerned I am highly sceptical of their motives knowing this.  I don't know how much other charities pay their chuggers but the fact it can be so high is enough in itself to deter me from ever donating a single penny to them.  I do believe legislation is required to force charities to be transparent with their pay scales.  The salaries of all workers within any charity should be publicly accessible, especially when those charities gain special tax status for the supposed work they do.  "Chugging" meaning "Charity Mugging" is perhaps one of the most apt names for a job there ever was.