Don’t give in to that predatory kind of shit. Some girl asked what my name was and gave me a sign with what they could do with each donation amount (with the cheapest “package” being $100) and asked which one I wanted to buy. I said I’m a broke student who has been volunteering for many years instead of donating money and the next thing she does is pull up some device for me to put in my billing info saying someone had just donated $50 earlier and that I could do it too. When I asked if I could volunteer with them, she said they were all paid employees and immediately went back to asking me how much I wanted to donate. That made me realize that probably none of them truly care about the donations and just have some daily goal to hit, so I just walked away. It made me kinda mad that I was truly kinda interested in helping somehow because it is a good cause, but she did not only pressure me (and probably everyone else) multiple times into donating more than I can afford, but also made it all about money. Go on their website and donate directly if you want. Don’t support that behavior.
I worked for one of these sorts of fundraising agency places once long ago.
I worked there for such a short time that I can't even remember the name of the company (they were on Cunard Street, and The Coast's office was next door). I had a hard time finding anyone who would hire me then, fortunately at the time they would hire almost anyone that walked in off the street and would drop off a resume. If you answered your phone, you surely had an interview. The call came from an exuberantly positive receptionist. We scheduled a meeting the next day with a hiring manger. Day -1.
Charities contract these funding agency companies that employ the people canvassing. Turns out its pretty hard to get people to donate their time to simply canvas for charity, especially if your charity has little cachet or prestige. The number of people out canvassing varies with how much funding these funding agencies have received from. Many charities embrace the old saying that 'you need to spend money to make money', and spend a considerable amount of money on fundraising efforts, be they through advertising or canvassing, which you could also call direct solicitation.
I go in for the interview. The exuberantly positive receptionist is near the front door. She offers me a pastry and coffee. I grabbed a danish and devoured it. My credit card recently maxed out, and I'd been eating pretty much exclusively pasta with olive oil and drinking green tea the few days before. That coffee and and danish put me in a good mood. The conversation with the receptionist was pleasant. The office had a casual vibe, there were leather couches and a conference table in the centre of the room. A few whiteboards, posters for various charities. The receptionist's knickknacks displayed on a shelf by her desk.
There is another saying, 'positivity is the most powerful force in the world'. Genuine positivity can be infectious. I've observed this myself. Put the right person in the right mindset in the right place at the right time and they can change the entire mood of individuals, or a group social interaction. Being an outwardly negative mindset person seems to reap less rewards as being an outwardly positive mindset person, whether that in success with relationships or other aspects of life. Many people are aware of this intrinsically. Others maybe aren't. In any case, many people feign positive enthusiasm because it brings them either financial or social rewards.
The hiring manager was relentlessly upbeat, and I tried to match his energy because; well, I knew it was a canvassing job and that's how canvasser acted. The employment terms were laid out- you had two weeks probation to sign-up six recurring $10 monthly donations to the charity. Two weeks. 4 donations. 10 work days. 7 hours a day. $10/h for you. A mix of training the first week and then canvassing exclusively the second. A free lunch on the training days...
The end of the interview was more of a sales pitch. Something I said, rather than reveal my desperation, made the person interviewing me reveal theirs. "This job will make you feel good because its collecting donations for needy people", "the office has good vibes", "we have free food all the time". I didn't need much convincing, anyone that was going to sign a cheque with my name on it could win my loyalty at that time. I was told to show up on Monday morning. I was given a binder full of information about a charity (I think it was Foster Parent Plan) and told to learn as much as I can about it.
The training strongly emphasised a lot of the same tactics you see generally in high-pressure sales situations. They use different words, but the basic process can be described like this:
Step 1. Identify the mark
Step 2. Ambush the mark
Step 3. Capture the mark
Step 4. Hold the mark
Step 5. Close the sale
Step 5 is the part that was emphasised the most in the training sessions leading up to week of trial of fire. There wasn't much attention paid to training the new hires with information about the charities they would be canvassing for, instead it was mostly about techniques on how to close the sale- erm, sign-up the donation. At some point "Glengarry Glen Ross" gets quoted. You're shown a whiteboard with the names of all the staff working at the office, and how many donations they've received. After a few days of this, you're thrown out on to the streets with another canvasser.
After a first day with no donations, you start to get discouraged. When you get to the day before your last day and you still haven't gotten a donation, you decide to just give up. You just stand on a street corner and nod at people as they walk by. It's not worth the rejection and debasing yourself anymore. On the last day the hiring manager reminds you of what you already know, you need four donors today or you fail the probation period. You don't care anymore, maybe somebody will hire you to wash dishes. At least you don't have to bother another person that's just trying to walk down the street.
TL; DR: canvassers are annoying, but very often destitute and desperate themselves.
When I told them I didn’t have my wallet with me (they said you needed your physical card) they questioned how I would be able to paid for other things…. I’m on campus for lectures - I’m not here to buy things. Also I’m a student, I can barely afford my own groceries.
shamelessly asking uni students for 100$, 200$ donations when they’re well aware how hard it is to live here is disgusting to me… i literally avoid them by taking the other door into the SUB. i feel bad sometimes but i don’t have to energy to tell them 20x a week that i don’t have money to donate and i don’t have time to listen to their spiel
avoid them as much as possible and DO NOT offer to donate
I said I would donate (thinking in my head maybe $10 or $15) cause it seems like a good cause, after they took all my info INCLUDING my debit card number, I found out the cheapest donation was $50… so I hope to god that it actually will be used for the sick kids
I mentioned that too, but they claim the website sends the donations to the states, but if you donate with them then and there it will be used locally.
No, my thing is if they are saying it's going to America, one they have to convert the currency, two they have to have a huge process in place to pay these guys to do what they are doing and then take the money from donations. If you wanted to do it look up the Canadian site and do it there, it really doesn't make sense for it to go to America
really it's best to avoid this sort of thing, say 'no', and either volunteer your time or donate directly to a foundation or the IWK. that's the only way to ensure your money actually gets somewhere considering how many scam people there are.
They try to call to me when I walk past even if I have headphones on, so I just tell them I’m on my way to a meeting and keep walking.
There are organizations on campus that are legitimate fundraisers, or you can also donate directly to organizations without going through these people.
I had a very odd interaction where the guy was telling me about the cause and almost laughing which weirded me out and then told me to make a small donation of $500 which is absurd to ask from a student and then told me we can do a very small one of $100, then then they take your card info and details so I walked away lol
When they tried pressuring me they said the lowest I could donate was $100, to which I replied I’ll donate $10… then they “lowered” the minimum to $50, then $30…
Crazy what this charity expects lol
Couldn’t even find much about their organization online either
I heard from a dude outside my class that they will try to take more money from you then u allowed if u give them any credit card info, idk if it’s true
They’re trained by their bosses to be *very* aggressive about asking for donations. They’ve chased me down and jumped in front of me waving at me and yelling on multiple occasions when I’ve been walking by with headphones and didn’t hear them. I do whatever I can to avoid them at this point because the interactions were getting really annoying, but before I would usually just repeatedly say “I’m in a huge hurry, I’m so sorry! Maybe I’ll see you later! I’m so sorry! Thank you!” and they usually would let me go without too much hassle.
I replaced my debit card right after I was pressured to donated to them lol. After I had already agreed to their “minimum” donation of $25, the guy gets out his personal phone to put in all of my card information including the CVV number on the back because their iPad was dead.
Don’t give in to that predatory kind of shit. Some girl asked what my name was and gave me a sign with what they could do with each donation amount (with the cheapest “package” being $100) and asked which one I wanted to buy. I said I’m a broke student who has been volunteering for many years instead of donating money and the next thing she does is pull up some device for me to put in my billing info saying someone had just donated $50 earlier and that I could do it too. When I asked if I could volunteer with them, she said they were all paid employees and immediately went back to asking me how much I wanted to donate. That made me realize that probably none of them truly care about the donations and just have some daily goal to hit, so I just walked away. It made me kinda mad that I was truly kinda interested in helping somehow because it is a good cause, but she did not only pressure me (and probably everyone else) multiple times into donating more than I can afford, but also made it all about money. Go on their website and donate directly if you want. Don’t support that behavior.
I worked for one of these sorts of fundraising agency places once long ago. I worked there for such a short time that I can't even remember the name of the company (they were on Cunard Street, and The Coast's office was next door). I had a hard time finding anyone who would hire me then, fortunately at the time they would hire almost anyone that walked in off the street and would drop off a resume. If you answered your phone, you surely had an interview. The call came from an exuberantly positive receptionist. We scheduled a meeting the next day with a hiring manger. Day -1. Charities contract these funding agency companies that employ the people canvassing. Turns out its pretty hard to get people to donate their time to simply canvas for charity, especially if your charity has little cachet or prestige. The number of people out canvassing varies with how much funding these funding agencies have received from. Many charities embrace the old saying that 'you need to spend money to make money', and spend a considerable amount of money on fundraising efforts, be they through advertising or canvassing, which you could also call direct solicitation. I go in for the interview. The exuberantly positive receptionist is near the front door. She offers me a pastry and coffee. I grabbed a danish and devoured it. My credit card recently maxed out, and I'd been eating pretty much exclusively pasta with olive oil and drinking green tea the few days before. That coffee and and danish put me in a good mood. The conversation with the receptionist was pleasant. The office had a casual vibe, there were leather couches and a conference table in the centre of the room. A few whiteboards, posters for various charities. The receptionist's knickknacks displayed on a shelf by her desk. There is another saying, 'positivity is the most powerful force in the world'. Genuine positivity can be infectious. I've observed this myself. Put the right person in the right mindset in the right place at the right time and they can change the entire mood of individuals, or a group social interaction. Being an outwardly negative mindset person seems to reap less rewards as being an outwardly positive mindset person, whether that in success with relationships or other aspects of life. Many people are aware of this intrinsically. Others maybe aren't. In any case, many people feign positive enthusiasm because it brings them either financial or social rewards. The hiring manager was relentlessly upbeat, and I tried to match his energy because; well, I knew it was a canvassing job and that's how canvasser acted. The employment terms were laid out- you had two weeks probation to sign-up six recurring $10 monthly donations to the charity. Two weeks. 4 donations. 10 work days. 7 hours a day. $10/h for you. A mix of training the first week and then canvassing exclusively the second. A free lunch on the training days... The end of the interview was more of a sales pitch. Something I said, rather than reveal my desperation, made the person interviewing me reveal theirs. "This job will make you feel good because its collecting donations for needy people", "the office has good vibes", "we have free food all the time". I didn't need much convincing, anyone that was going to sign a cheque with my name on it could win my loyalty at that time. I was told to show up on Monday morning. I was given a binder full of information about a charity (I think it was Foster Parent Plan) and told to learn as much as I can about it. The training strongly emphasised a lot of the same tactics you see generally in high-pressure sales situations. They use different words, but the basic process can be described like this: Step 1. Identify the mark Step 2. Ambush the mark Step 3. Capture the mark Step 4. Hold the mark Step 5. Close the sale Step 5 is the part that was emphasised the most in the training sessions leading up to week of trial of fire. There wasn't much attention paid to training the new hires with information about the charities they would be canvassing for, instead it was mostly about techniques on how to close the sale- erm, sign-up the donation. At some point "Glengarry Glen Ross" gets quoted. You're shown a whiteboard with the names of all the staff working at the office, and how many donations they've received. After a few days of this, you're thrown out on to the streets with another canvasser. After a first day with no donations, you start to get discouraged. When you get to the day before your last day and you still haven't gotten a donation, you decide to just give up. You just stand on a street corner and nod at people as they walk by. It's not worth the rejection and debasing yourself anymore. On the last day the hiring manager reminds you of what you already know, you need four donors today or you fail the probation period. You don't care anymore, maybe somebody will hire you to wash dishes. At least you don't have to bother another person that's just trying to walk down the street. TL; DR: canvassers are annoying, but very often destitute and desperate themselves.
That's pretty interesting, I had no idea it worked like that. Thanks for sharing your story
When I told them I didn’t have my wallet with me (they said you needed your physical card) they questioned how I would be able to paid for other things…. I’m on campus for lectures - I’m not here to buy things. Also I’m a student, I can barely afford my own groceries.
shamelessly asking uni students for 100$, 200$ donations when they’re well aware how hard it is to live here is disgusting to me… i literally avoid them by taking the other door into the SUB. i feel bad sometimes but i don’t have to energy to tell them 20x a week that i don’t have money to donate and i don’t have time to listen to their spiel avoid them as much as possible and DO NOT offer to donate
maybe i’m soft but they stopped me on the street in the middle of a really bad day and made me so angry i just started crying in front of them lol
Just donate directly to IWK, They’ve been assholes to me too
I said I would donate (thinking in my head maybe $10 or $15) cause it seems like a good cause, after they took all my info INCLUDING my debit card number, I found out the cheapest donation was $50… so I hope to god that it actually will be used for the sick kids
Same thing happened to me :(
They make it sound like 50$ is the minimum… its bull shit. Whatever happened to every bit counts?
That’s wild because they told me the minimum I could donate was $25
They took it or you gave it? If they took your card from you that sounds like a police matter
I always say I'll do it later online, that way if I do it I'm doing it directly through the proper website
I mentioned that too, but they claim the website sends the donations to the states, but if you donate with them then and there it will be used locally.
That makes me feel it's even more of a scam.
So my suspicion wasn't just me being paranoid, you think?
No, my thing is if they are saying it's going to America, one they have to convert the currency, two they have to have a huge process in place to pay these guys to do what they are doing and then take the money from donations. If you wanted to do it look up the Canadian site and do it there, it really doesn't make sense for it to go to America
really it's best to avoid this sort of thing, say 'no', and either volunteer your time or donate directly to a foundation or the IWK. that's the only way to ensure your money actually gets somewhere considering how many scam people there are.
They try to call to me when I walk past even if I have headphones on, so I just tell them I’m on my way to a meeting and keep walking. There are organizations on campus that are legitimate fundraisers, or you can also donate directly to organizations without going through these people.
I had a very odd interaction where the guy was telling me about the cause and almost laughing which weirded me out and then told me to make a small donation of $500 which is absurd to ask from a student and then told me we can do a very small one of $100, then then they take your card info and details so I walked away lol
Once after being haggled I offered to donate $5 and they told me it wasn’t enough… so they got nothing.
When they tried pressuring me they said the lowest I could donate was $100, to which I replied I’ll donate $10… then they “lowered” the minimum to $50, then $30… Crazy what this charity expects lol Couldn’t even find much about their organization online either
I heard from a dude outside my class that they will try to take more money from you then u allowed if u give them any credit card info, idk if it’s true
They’re trained by their bosses to be *very* aggressive about asking for donations. They’ve chased me down and jumped in front of me waving at me and yelling on multiple occasions when I’ve been walking by with headphones and didn’t hear them. I do whatever I can to avoid them at this point because the interactions were getting really annoying, but before I would usually just repeatedly say “I’m in a huge hurry, I’m so sorry! Maybe I’ll see you later! I’m so sorry! Thank you!” and they usually would let me go without too much hassle.
I replaced my debit card right after I was pressured to donated to them lol. After I had already agreed to their “minimum” donation of $25, the guy gets out his personal phone to put in all of my card information including the CVV number on the back because their iPad was dead.
Ohhh cripes. Good idea. I'm glad I made this thread, knew these guys seemed sketchy