Charity Cold Call? It was not us..

We have had a series of people calling our office this week complaining that they/their grandmother/a friend has been cold called by us asking for a donation. This mistaken identity happens from time to time when other charities bother people at home. It turns out that on this occasion the calls were made by a much smaller (but genuine) charity group called "World Villages for Children". Please do not call us to complain, these calls have nothing to do with us.

SOS Children is distinctively different in the way it finds donors and raises funds, we would hate to be mistaken for people who do not follow our approach.

We do not spam, cold call or send junk mail

Please let us be clear. SOS Children do not cold call people, send spam emails or send addressed or unaddressed junk mail. We do not approach people in the street or go visiting them door to door. We do not run invasive or distressing TV adverts and we do very little print or internet advertising. We have not used cold Direct Mail for five years and have no plans to start.

It is not that we are unable to cold call but we think it would be disrespectful of potential donors to disturb them at home. In the UK we are growing at around 25% a year or more on word of mouth from people who know our approach, and our incredible work and tell others about it. We get most of our new donors from online referrals and that helps to keep our fundraising and admin costs very low (in the last five years our income has more than tripled and our admin and fundraising cost has fallen over the same period).

How to stop getting junk mail, cold calls etc

It would be nice if we could tell you how to stop other charities and organisations from disturbing you at home or on the street but the simple answer is there is no complete solution. You can contact the mailing preference service (Google for "mailing preference service") which in theory may stop addressed junk mail but only if you have lived at the same address for a long time and the junk mail is addressed to a correctly spelt version of your name with the right initials, and even then some people seem to ignore it. You can contact the telephone preference service (Google for "telephone preference service") but from personal experience people still call (and claim they have exemptions because they are doing "market research" or whatever). To stop unaddressed junk mail (which can include some of the most shocking charity hate mail or "chate mail") you have to actually write to the post office. But there is no way at present to stop people cornering you on the street (charity muggers or "Chuggers").

Complaining to these organisations is unlikely in our view to help much. There is a "money counting" culture to decision making in many of these entities and "complaints" do not cost them money and are not in the equation. There is a "Fundraising Standards Board" which you could complain to, but they are likely to decide the charity was acting reasonably because they are basically a club of some of the charities who sail closest to the wind. The Charity Commission also tows the party line that it is up to the individual to master the complexity of "opting out" from being called at home.

What we suggest therefore

What we suggest therefore is JUST SAY NO and never give money to charities who approach you in a way you do not wish to encourage. You have some rights in law to cancel donations made in these circumstances, so if you regret donations afterwards, cancel them. Give only to charities which wait for you to find them; this makes sense as well since the ones not paying people to phone you at home or to roam the streets will probably spend a much higher proportion of your donation on what matters anyway. It would be a shame to give thinking you are helping an Aids Orphan when really your money might be used for adverts, so just say no. That is the only way in which the privacy of you, your family, the vulnerable and everyone else in the UK can be protected.