When Charities Get It Wrong

Got a call today from the Westpac Rescue Helicopter at work. At first the chap wanted to ask me some rather odd questions, like was I in the city and what my address was. I was a bit suspicious and asked a few questions (because he could have been a potential or existing customer). Given the nature of my work, I don't really have time to tell complete strangers my life story.

He instantly got a bit stroppy, which seemed very odd. He then told me where he was from and what wonderful things they do. I tried to slow him down pretty quickly and said that donations from us were unlikely to be forthcoming because we do our bit in other ways. He got more stroppy. I then asked him to remove our number from their list because such calls cost me money. His response was that he got our phone number from the phone book, and if we didn't want to be called we should remove our number from the phone book. How absolutely bizarre.

So here's a free tip if you want people to give you money for nothing:
- if you are asking for money, don't shine a light in the donor's eyes and ask them irrelevent questions;
- wasting the time of the potential donor is unlikely to be productive;
- being offensive and suggesting that they don't publicise their details for potential customers to avoid vacuous, rude, time wasting beggars, isn't a winning strategy.

Whilst I am sure the Westpac Rescue Helicopter is a worthy cause, their methodology for getting funding needs serious attention.