A silly chugger?
SOME weeks ago British Waterways held a press briefing on its plans for fundraising as the Canal & River Trust (CART). That press briefing confirmed several narrowboatworld reports that CART would not be a membership organisation.
However, a poster on the 'Waterscape Official' Facebook site suggests that it will be a membership organisation.
Yes it will
Bob Furnell posted 'I will soon be a fundraiser for the Canal & River Trust, so I will pop on to find out a bit more about Canals and Rivers'. Naturally group members asked for more information but it seemed the only thing that Bob knew was that it was to be a membership organisation.
Bob, who has worked in the past for almost three years as a chugger (charity mugger) for CM Fundraising persuading the public to join the Wildlife Trust is being re-employed by them to do the same thing for CART.
Chugger is, of course, a derogatory term used to describe those employed by charitable organisations to solicit passers-by for donations. CM Fundraising is one of the top fundraising (or chugging) companies with such prestigious accounts as RSPB, the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, The Woodlands Trust, Dartmoor Preservation Society and Soil Association.
No it won't
However, CM Fundraising forgot to tell Bob that the 'Friends of Canal & River Trust' which will probably be launched in June, is not a membership organisation and, as a friend, you will have absolutely no say in how the charity is run.
Poor Bob has not even been told that for the same money, just under £50 a year, you can join a membership organisation with similar objectives to CART. It's called the Inland Waterways Association.
Paying the company
And nobody told Bob that the money contributed by the Friends will all go towards paying the chugger company in the early years. Indeed, British Waterways' prediction is that in CART's first year of operation it will lose about three quarters of a million pounds on fundraising! It would be rather difficult to raise money by saying 'Every penny of your £48 a year donation will be wasted!'
(The donation to become a 'Friend' (i.e. a CART supporter) is £4 a month. This equates to £48 a year. Individual membership of IWA is £47.50 a year.)
Finally, nobody told poor Bob that the Efra select committee do not believe British Waterways' medium and long term predictions and feel that boaters will be targeted by CART to make up the shortfall in increased licence and mooring charges.
Bob's story
On his website, this is what Bob has to say about his employer:
'My first job since my car accident in August 1998 was for a company called CM Fundraising working as a Membership Recruitment Fundraiser for The Wildlife Trust from Nov 2008 to May 2011.
They was (sic) the first employer that took me on with my disability's (sic) and since then (strangely enough) I have had a few offers of work? I worked with CM Fundraising until my move to Lancashire, they then let me down BADLY after telling me I could carry on working with them up there, and the Lancashire team will arrange venues for me to work (like pigs fly). I had to quit and look for work as I need wages to live by'.
As Bob now currently appears be in full time employment but is leaving to work for a company he feels has let him down in the past would it be fair to say he is 'a silly chugger'?