Street collections company posts loss
The operations of Face2Face Ireland show the company lost ‚€210,757 in its first full year trading in Ireland. The figures for 2004 show, however, that the British branch of Face2Face made a profit of £367,906.
The other major street collections agency in Ireland, Gift Fundraising, does not file accounts in Ireland but its British based parent company made a pre-tax profit of £1.54 million to March 31st, 2005. Collectors working for Gift Ireland are paid ‚€11.69 an hour, while those employed by Face3Face are paid ‚€9.25 in Dublin and ‚€8.42 an hour outside the city.
Neither company or the charities they work for were prepared to tell to a national newspaper recently what commission was paid but the street collections were defended as a cost effective way to raise money. The newspaper revealed that in the UK the commission earned per donor was around ‚€104.
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The concept of face to face sign up of direct debits continues to attract controversy, with the Irish Labour Party spokesman on community affairs recently expressing concern about using professional fundraisers.