London: Tens of millions of pounds donated to charities every year by the public through ‘chuggers' seldom get further than private fund-raising companies, an investigation has revealed.
Charities pay huge sums to firms that employ so-called ‘charity muggers' who stop people in the street and try to persuade them to donate by direct debit.
But the charities often don't see a penny of this donated money because the ‘chugging' firm charges are so high. Last year, 750,000 people signed on the dotted line, giving an average contribution of £90 (Dh513.5) a year.
But a BBC investigation has found the charities are often paying the companies, in effect, £100 or more for each signature they collectΠmeaning in many cases that the company is paid more than the charity will raise from that donor in the first year.
And many of those signed up by these sub-contractors do not complete 12 months of donations.
In the investigation, BBC's Newsnight contacted 20 leading charities.
The British Heart Foundation confirmed it paid the equivalent of £136 per signature. Cancer Research UK said it paid an average of £112 to recruit each donor and in total paid face-to-face fundraisers £3million a year. Guide Dogs said it paid out nearly £2million annually.
Mick Aldridge, chief executive of the Professional Fundraising Regulatory Association, said: "Some charities might be paying £50 or £60 per donor, some might be paying £100 or £120 or possibly even more. It may look to the uninformed outsider as if all of their first-year donation is going to go to a third party but that's not the only way of looking at it."
