Street fundraisers appear in top 50 pains in public
Howard Lake | 8 November 2004 | News
A new humourous book profiling the 50 types of people most likely to annoy you in public not only lists street fundraisers but features a cartoon of one on its front page.
“Pains in Public: The 50 People Most Likely to Drive You Completely Nuts!” is a new book by Andrew Holmes and Dan Wilson. They describe it as “a manifesto for the perennially grumpy”.
Dreadful drivers, dog owners who let their dogs foul the pavement, financial service telemarketers, and of course face to face fundraisers, or “chuggers” as sadly they have now been permanently branded: all of these and more are included in this rant against pushiness, incivility and annoying people.
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“Down with pushiness, poor personal hygiene and fluorescent tabards”, demand the authors. “Together we can make the world a less painful place.”
On street fundraisers in particular they comment: “chuggers behave like rabid dogs on heat.” In fact, they seem to confuse face to face fundraisers, who are usually seeking regular committed gifts, with fundraisers involved in public street collections for coins and notes. “Be sick into the collection bucket”, they suggest if you encounter such a fundraiser.
The book is out now, and is presumably aimed at the Christmas market. Amazon are selling it at 20% off the list price of £7.99.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.