Real life brand credibility underpinning fundraising activity
Howard Lake | 26 November 2009 | Blogs
For a while, I have been talking about how brand credibility not only gives charities the right to ask for donations but also how it can protect them when things go awry. This month I personally experienced a great example of the latter.
At London’s Victoria station there is always a different group of individuals collecting for various charities and in early November, prime concourse space was occupied by this year’s Poppy Appeal team. I wanted to donate and collect my poppy so dutifully waited in line with other commuters whilst the team (presumably volunteers) tried to manage the human traffic as quickly as possible.
Whilst waiting, I was a little shocked and disappointed to hear the way in which the volunteers were speaking to the waiting donors (that’s what we were). Most of the team were older, some wearing medals and clearly had a personal affinity with the campaign – all of which is positive. However, they clearly were not used to rush hour and the bustle / crush this creates.
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Donors were being ordered around, told they were stupid if they were going to attach a poppy in a certain way, tutted at and ignored by the volunteers. I actually saw one younger donor ‘told off’ (seriously) by a volunteer for wanting change from a £10 note….!
Read more at the penguin blog….. (a little experiment – if you really object, please let me know)
Kevin Baughen is the Founder of Bottom Line Ideas, a regular speaker at NFP events and a volunteer for Cancer Research UK.
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.