Chuggers
Howard Lake | 9 November 2016
About chuggers and chugging
A ‘chugger’ is defined as “a person who approaches passers-by in the street asking for subscriptions or donations to a particular charity”.
Chugging, or face-to-face fundraising, has been used by charities around the world since the mid-1990s when it was introduced by Greenpeace. In some ways it returned fundraising back to its basics – one person talking to another is regarded as one of the best ways to ask for a donation.
The practice has now been adopted by many charities who use it as part of a range of methods of fundraising.
Chuggers operate in public spaces, usually on the streets of town centres. A small group of them will invite passers-by to stop and hear about the charity that they support.
Some chuggers are employed by the charity they work for. For many charities though this is a substantial risk in terms of a commitment to staff salaries, so they choose to outsource this practice to experienced face-to-face or street fundraising companies.
Street fundraising is regulated and there are detailed agreements signed between charities and fundraising agencies. Local authorities also require agreements with fundraising agencies operating in town centres to ensure that there are never too many fundraisers operating at once, competing charities, or fundraisers being active every day of the week.
Chuggers are not volunteers. They are trained fundraisers. They are either paid a salary or work on commission. This is of course deducted from the amount that the charity receives in terms of the donation. Nevertheless, enough charities find that, given the tax-efficient element of giving (many donors sign a Gift Aid declaration, adding 25% of the value to their gift at no cost to themselves), and it’s multi-year duration, street fundraising is still a valuable and effective form of fundraising.
Different forms
‘Chuggers’ can be engaged in different kinds of fundraising, depending on the location. These can include:
- face to face fundraising
- door to door fundraising
The latter should not be confused with house-to-house collections where, for example, a volunteer collector will post a donation envelope to homes during the charity’s annual fundraising week.
Should you have any further questions, please contact us on 0845 094 8033 to advertise your street fundraising company details at the top of this listing.
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.