18 February 2011

Charity Collectors in the Malls & on the streets of Canberra

| Canon76
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This morning I saw some people collecting for the Australian paralympic committee, trying to raise funds to cover costs.

They were offering to me the opportunity to purchase a scratchie for $10.

When I asked if the person was working for the APC, the answer was no. I assume then that this organisation that they work is actually acting on behalf of the APC.

But after a bit of research I found out that this is just a company that has entered into a contract with the APC.

It would then be very interesting to know how much of this $10 is actually going to the APC ?

Have any other readers of the riotact run into these people ?

Does anybody know how much of the money is going to the APC ?

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Nope! but I won my $10 back with the scratchie, was hoping to win $80,000.00 dam!

Tetranitrate7:48 pm 19 Nov 11

This is a very late post to the thread but it’s worth bringing up – earlier this year I’d been looking for a job, and ended up going a long for an interview to a mob called “Newmount Sports” based in Phillip.
As it turned out, these were the guys doing the paralympics collecting at various local shops.

After going along to an interview I was meant to do a ‘trial shift’ where I’d go out with another ’employee’, but decided to bail on the way to the shops after talking to the other bloke on the way, because it quickly became clear that this company was using sham contracting.

-it was the typical sham-contracting shite where they want you to get an ABN and enter a ‘business relationship’ with them, but then essentially treat you as an employee (who doesn’t doesn’t have their tax withheld and doesn’t get compulsory super contributions).

I ended up complaining to seek.com.au because they were advertising the “jobs” as normal sales jobs rather than “business opportunities”, but yeah – I figure it’s worth putting it out there that not only is the whole angle of using sales tactics to push for charity donations off putting, but also these companies are engaging in dodgy practices in their dealings with their staff.

I expect a lot of people are going to get caught out sooner or later since those that I talked to had no idea about tax and assumed that they were essentially being paid ‘cash in hand’ despite having an ABN, but the insurance situation is just as alarming since it’s not impossible that someone might trip over the leg of a table or something to that effect at one of the stalls.
From what I could tell the mostly late teenage contractors are all operating without any sort of insurance and could be seriously caught out by any accident involving a third party.

Rawhide Kid Part39:40 am 19 Feb 11

Canon76 said :

I think with the scratchie one that the APC get a flat small percenatge of the amount collected. I just have concerns about this type of charity collecting . I have gone to the APC website and they do not have the information in relation to how much they receive from this company.

Commercial in confidence?

Erg0 said :

I believe that’s basically how it works, though I’d point out that it’s the company employing the backpackers who gets the percentage – the backpackers themselves probably get minimum wage.

A friend did the collections for APC for a little while, and claimed he was getting paid $24/hr for it. I wonder how much better that money could be spent, rather than paying someone to sit out the front of a shop all day, maybe donating the money to a good cause like the paralympics.

The $10 bit is a bit of a joke too. I approached the table out of interest as I used to play disabled sport and am currently on crutches. When asked what they were doing, they explained the $10 tickets. I said I didnt have $10 on me but would like to make a donation. I was given a blank stare and told the minimum donation amount is $10, so I walked away. Ive never heard of a charity asking for a ‘minimum’ donation before, or turning away a donation because it wasnt enough. Sad, because its a cause I really want to support, but wont through those tables due to their attitudes.

georgesgenitals7:53 pm 18 Feb 11

“I don’t mind killing those animals so we can extend the useful life of their fur, but when people just kill them because the gold course is booked out I really get the craps”.

Those Paralympics collectors were collecting last year with buckets – and not issuing receipts. There is simply no way to know how much made it to the Paralympics Committee. Absolute scam.

I often avoided going into Civic just so I didn’t have to put up with these pains in the %$S. Then I got accosted at the Curtin shops. When I politely declined I was asked what charities I gave to. Unfortunately I was too surpised to say ‘none of your effing business you tool’ and I was too far away to headbutt him.

I had wondered about the fat blob stuffing pudgy-fist-fulls of chips into his cake hole while collecting for the Paralympics at my local shops the other day. Clearly not a volunteer athlete!

Mothy said :

Yep, passed these guys at Jamison at lunch. My first thought was “eh? A scratchie? Wouldn’t you need a gambling license for that?” Since I didn’t want to get into a conversation, I didn’t look into it any further and I too am glad to have passed them by.

Canon76 said :

I think with the scratchie one that the APC get a flat small percenatge of the amount collected.

Danger Will Robinson.

Assumes they give everyone a receipt.

No receipt and the APC have a license for the scratchie ( as per legislation) . However it is not a tax deduction that you are making.

Yep, passed these guys at Jamison at lunch. My first thought was “eh? A scratchie? Wouldn’t you need a gambling license for that?” Since I didn’t want to get into a conversation, I didn’t look into it any further and I too am glad to have passed them by.

Canon76 said :

I think with the scratchie one that the APC get a flat small percenatge of the amount collected.

Danger Will Robinson.

Assumes they give everyone a receipt.

And the paralympics collectors are one of the worst ones I’ve met in a while (apart from that b!tch of a WWF woman a couple of years ago who treated me like I had just single-handedly murdered all of the endangered animals because I didn’t want to listen to her sales pitch).

I don’t mind buying the odd raffles ticket or giving a gold coin donation to charities collecting at the local shops or at events. But the first time I ever agreed to listen to the paralympics guys, they started off by trying to make me commit to donating $1000+ to sponsor an olympian. Of course, that was about the change that I just got from the IGA after buying an icecream for my daughter, so I happily emptied my pockets. WTF? Then he went through all the different optoins, which were all ludicrously expensive and it took about 20 minutes before he finally got down to the single scratchy. In which time my daughter and her friend were running amock doing dangerous things with shopping trolleys.

Needless to say that I just glare at them now when they try to get my attention. And after hearing this story, I severely regret buying that scratchy and now I will know what to say to them next time.

I think with the scratchie one that the APC get a flat small percenatge of the amount collected. I just have concerns about this type of charity collecting . I have gone to the APC website and they do not have the information in relation to how much they receive from this company.

I believe that’s basically how it works, though I’d point out that it’s the company employing the backpackers who gets the percentage – the backpackers themselves probably get minimum wage.

They were also at Jammo this morning.

I think this has been covered on riotact before. My understanding is that the chuggers, the backpackers that try to get you to sign up to regular monthly donations to Greenpeace/Amnesty/whoever are paid commission. It’s a sliding scale over five years. So something like this – the first year of your donations, the company paying the backpackers gets 90% of your contribution, the charity 10%, second year, say 75/25% or whatever the numbers are, until the five year mark where the charity finally gets it all. Obviously, selling scratchies is different, but I’d be guessing that similarly, a large portion of the funds goes to the company selling the product.

Civic has been thick with chuggers this week, two different lots out there. I know you can just say no thanks and walk away, but working in Civic, I get really sick of being approached and some of them are persistent buggers.

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