[Kaseoki]

Hi, I just got back from a job interview today with a company called 'Home Fundraising' who do door to door and ask for monthly donations via direct debit.

I'm not terribly sure if the company is totally legit and it looks quite hard to try and get sign ups already. I googled it and got some really mix responses saying some didn't get paid and some saying it is legit.

Anybody had any experiences with them?

[Mr. Orange]

Er yeah i work for them. They are completely legitimate so I would like to know what has been said elsewhere that you have picked up on (links would be helpful)

Basically you work for charities (I'm on Cancer Research UK and MacMillan atm) and you get paid a flat rate of £7 an hour (just 5 hours a day however 3.30pm til 9pm with half hour break). I work in Manchester and if you are door knocking outside the ring road (M60) they pay for your travel. If you raise a certain amount of money for charity in a week you get bonus. Seeing as £35 a day isn't that great there is the incentive to get bonus (which in turn gets more money for charity). It is a full-time job for some people who I work with and some of them pull in over £350 a week regularly (I know one guy get £600 in a week once) because they are good fundraisers. If you do not get many sign ups over a couple of weeks you are wasting charity money in effect so they get rid of you pretty quickly.

Hope this helps.

[bete noire]

Its all legit, but its a terrible job in my opinion. The charity sector is horrible work

[rick_james]

wondering if anyone could help me, I had my first training day here today, was just wondering if you get paid for the training as its 12 hours, and I have had to miss college due to it.

[deadmanbreathing]

As you would have already found out, but I state so that others know, no, you don't get paid for the training. You get a 'gratis' payment that 'reasonably' covers your time and expenses over the training period after you have worked 30 shifts or more.

This is just another sales job, just like all the rest. The companies ethics soon start to disappear and filter out the further down the chain of command you go. Once at the ground level, I.e. those who actually do the leg work, the word ethical becomes a barrier and one who's edges are widely smudged.

You are building up a picture of desperation to the 'potential donor', then making them feel guilty if they where not to sign up on the spot. They are then argued (objection handled) into purchasing a peace of conscience that makes their guilt go away.
The people most likely to give are those whom really cannot afford to do so, and the most affluent rarely ever give.

Poorer areas are specifiedcally targeted for this reason.

The "chugger" is pressured into making sales (sorry I mean getting donors), to ensure he/she makes the minimum target of 1.2 p/d. Thus the rhetoric is usually tailored around "saving these poor afflicted children's lives", no matter the charity.

If someone doesn't wish to sign up, they are cheekily (but with enough of a joking sense to appear not to be confrontational and but polite) argued into it.
"get to more doors, quicker, speed up your pitch......." common 'motivational' banter as heard by team leaders and those whom have been there a while.

Unless you have an agreeable 'usp' (unique selling point like endearing accent, cheekily quick wits, good looks with comical personality), even by working hard the law of averages will not cover the basic 1.2 conversion rate required per day. luck has a lot to do with it but "you make your own luck"......

For those that can do this kind of work, which is all about 'objection handling', then there are better ways of making more money for the same hours/effort, like market research for example, however it may seem a good cause working for a charity, with this job you are not working for a charity. You are working for a door to door collection agency, whom are paid by charities. (you are told to present your pitch as though you are a member of the charity of the current flavour.)

The work is hard (for most) and isn't worth the 25 hrs a week unless you make up on commission (hitting or exceeding targets), at which point it becomes very profitable, and also there in lies the problem whereby it becomes just another commission driven sales job.


Also, there are over 189,000 registered charities currently operating in the UK. Each doing campaigns, each pitching a worthy cause, each requiring donations and/or regular donors. A massive proportion of those that already do give are already stretched to the point of insolvency/debt or crisis them selves, and they are the ones regularly targeted by campaigns. The guilt trip works on them, is it then fair to stress them further into donating more? When someone says they can't afford it, are already donating to charity, don't have a bank account etc., it should be accepted, and move on.
This is how sales business see it "its like if people are around a swimng pool and one doesn't wish to swim, all it takes to get them to swim is to push them on the water. Then more often than not, once in the water, they enjoy it and are glad they where pushed in" that applies here and is not what I would call ethical.

However the people that work there are pretty great, especially for a sales type team, and at least what they are asking for does go toward something that does good.

[Mr. Orange]

(Original post by deadmanbreathing)
The people most likely to give are those whom really cannot afford to do so, and the most affluent rarely ever give.

Poorer areas are specifiedcally targeted for this reason.

thats not true

Unless you have an agreeable 'usp' (unique selling point like endearing accent, cheekily quick wits, good looks with comical personality), even by working hard the law of averages will not cover the basic 1.2 conversion rate required per day

er no that's wrong if you listen to what they tell you in training then you will get on average 3 sign ups a day

[deadmanbreathing]

(Original post by Mr. Orange)
er no that's wrong if you listen to what they tell you in training then you will get on average 3 sign ups a day

Well, I did listen, very carefully, and read the hand book, and they clearly told us that we would on average get 2 p/d. Considering the lowest conversion rate they'de accept for you to keep your job is 8 p/wk (for a 5 day week), 2 p/d would land one with around £90 bonus p/wk. This ontop of the £175 p/wk flat rate, doesn't seem too bad a rate.
However, like I said, only those with those USP virtues I mentioned will acheive that with the kind of regularity that would keep your weekly conversion rate up enough to keep your job. For the "average joe" this will be difficult. This then seperates those whom can from those whom can't. But the job is nothing to do with any specific charity, it is basically using charity as a cover for sales, so some of their work is done for them.

It really doesn't matter the charity of the flavour, "its all about saving those poor afflicted children...if it was your child would you donate? Would you like others to?".....etc.,etc.

If it is indeed "thats not true" regarding whether or not the poorer areas are specifically targeted....then why was it everytime I went out, the team leader was specifically looking for areas of terraced housing, council estates, etc.. If one of the team knew the area of the days "chugging", the team leader would excitedly ask "so, where are the council estates? Terraced housing? Small semi's,? The least affluent areas? The areas devoid of immigrants and racists?"

I work(-ed) for them too, so what I state I have seen first hand.
However, I sincerey beleive that team members and team leaders are not specifically greedy or malicious, just misguided. With sales jobs, one has to "buy in" to the company and the products its sells, its ethos and work "ethics" to have a chance of success. Most of thesse poor individuals have bought into that, and many make a success from it.

Next time a "chugger" calls at your door, ask them how many of the charities they are asking donations for they them selves have pledges monthly donations to? and if they have not, why should you?"

[GodAtum]

can you just say at home and earn the £7/hour?

[Mr. Orange]

(Original post by deadmanbreathing)
Well, I did listen, very carefully, and read the hand book, and they clearly told us that we would on average get 2 p/d. Considering the lowest conversion rate they'de accept for you to keep your job is 8 p/wk (for a 5 day week), 2 p/d would land one with around £90 bonus p/wk. This ontop of the £175 p/wk flat rate, doesn't seem too bad a rate.
However, like I said, only those with those USP virtues I mentioned will acheive that with the kind of regularity that would keep your weekly conversion rate up enough to keep your job. For the "average joe" this will be difficult. This then seperates those whom can from those whom can't. But the job is nothing to do with any specific charity, it is basically using charity as a cover for sales, so some of their work is done for them.

It really doesn't matter the charity of the flavour, "its all about saving those poor afflicted children...if it was your child would you donate? Would you like others to?".....etc.,etc.

If it is indeed "thats not true" regarding whether or not the poorer areas are specifically targeted....then why was it everytime I went out, the team leader was specifically looking for areas of terraced housing, council estates, etc.. If one of the team knew the area of the days "chugging", the team leader would excitedly ask "so, where are the council estates? Terraced housing? Small semi's,? The least affluent areas? The areas devoid of immigrants and racists?"

I work(-ed) for them too, so what I state I have seen first hand.
However, I sincerey beleive that team members and team leaders are not specifically greedy or malicious, just misguided. With sales jobs, one has to "buy in" to the company and the products its sells, its ethos and work "ethics" to have a chance of success. Most of thesse poor individuals have bought into that, and many make a success from it.

Next time a "chugger" calls at your door, ask them how many of the charities they are asking donations for they them selves have pledges monthly donations to? and if they have not, why should you?"

you had a poor team leader,

new build estates are gold mines take it from me

but terraced housing was also usually good, i also found that older people living in affluent areas tended to give because i would talk about random things that would interest them, like classical music for instance. little tricks like this get you the sign ups. i'm sorry that you didn't do well, the job is not for everybody.

[felixk1]

#####DON'T APPLY TO WORK FOR HOME FUNDRAISING#######

I was texted by Sarah from home fundraising in one of their branches saying that I had been invited to a group interview on 25th January. I attended the interview and was there for about an hour or so. At the end, they told us that we would get a text if we had been successful and that we would be invited to training. I didn't recieve a text so I assumed that I had not got the job however 1 week later on 3rd February they texted me with a 'reminder that you need to be at the office at 10 tomorrow for training with passport, NI number and bank details'. I was very happy because I assumed that I had been given the job. I went to the training day and arrived on time having been given a lift to Southampton with my Dad. The first thing we did was fill our a new starter form and give a photocopy of our passport and give our bank details for payment. 21 of us were given the training which lasted 7.5 hours. We were given leaflets and guide books which I have now telling us lots of information including our rate of pay - £7 per hour + bonuses. At the end of the day we were told that a some of us wouldn't actually make it to be fundraisers for the company. I was very suprised along with all of the other people. We were told that we would get a text saying if we had been successful or not. No more than half an hour later I recieved a text saying 'sorry to say that you did not pass training with us today'. I then became very angry because we had been led to believe that we had the job after passing an interview so we had wasted money on travelling to the office and also our time. In the end I am glad that I am not working for home fundraising as I hate to think about what they are like about paying people! I have now found a job paying more than what these scumbags were saying they would pay. I am currently talking to the citizens advice bureau trying to get them to pay me.

#####DON'T APPLY TO WORK FOR HOME FUNDRAISING#######

[chickenpie89]

I just got a job with home fundraising in Liverpool. I have been working for about 4 weeks now. It is a hard job, but worthwhile if you are good at it. I have worked in poor areas and very affluent areas. Poor people give more readily than rich people. I failed to get any sign ups in the rich areas they told me 'I can't afford it' when they had mercs and BMWs parked in their driveways, they just slammed the door in my face. The reason the team leaders love terraces is because you knock more doors because they are so close together, so you have more chances of getting sign ups because you talk to more people.

It is an ethical company my boss and team leaders are all passionate about charity and work many extra hours a week they aren't paid for. You do get paid 7 pound an hour and bonus if you are good at your job. Very rewarding job if you are good at it, I'm not sure if I am good yet but I'm trying my hardest. You get to meet soem lovely people when you are out working on the doors too.

[moonlighter]

Oh god, I was a door to door fundraiser for the British Red Cross, working for some marketing agency. It was the WORST job in my life. We would start at 11am with neverending meetings and pitch practising. Then at around 1 we would set off to the field. God forbid you had a proper lunch break, so we would eat lunch standing up at the tube station in about 10 minutes or on the train. Then we would start going door to door at about 2-2.30 until 8.30 pm, afterwards back to the office where we had to 'break our day' and do some more pitch practising until 10pm. So basically, I worked 11 hours a day and I was only paid on commission, for the sales (donors), so sometimes I would come home and at the end of the day make no money at all.
Anyway, in my opinion, it is a big waste of time, energy, health (mental and physical) and a waste of life.

[UnnamedPoster]

While randomly searching some stuff on google i found this place so i thought id put my two bob in.

I currently work at home fundraising, and have done for a while now, i am a team leader on £10 per hour in one of the northern offices, i dont wish anyone to know my name because some people from my office may actually read this hence unnamedposter..

The company do slightly mislead about the working hours as you have to travel from place to place so it is more than 5 hours a day (which you get paid for), but in all honesty what jobs do pay you to travel to work ? not many.


I have worked for several big companies this being the first in the charity sector, also having run several of my own companies.

This is the most legit company i have actually worked for (maybe my office is run different to others?) i've only worked for the one office (there is 15 i think)


As for pressured into giving to the charity, i my self have no problem getting 3-5 every single day of the week on any charity without turning any objections like i cant afford £2 a week.


On the note that people like to work in poorer areas, most do prefair that as the people in the poorer areas do give more often than in new build estates. Why? because this is what you are told from experienced fundraisers and teamleaders, why wouldnt you believe them? This is completly wrong. I fundraise in all areas, from council to terraces to new build to houses with buzzers on the gates where i cant even get in lol. I dont prefair any, however i wont be buzzing on some guys door at 4pm to say Hi come talk to me about a charity because he will be at work. Maybe at 7pm when he's home from work ill work the new build/posh estates...

Nearly anyone can do a 1.2 average per day if they are on a hard working team. Infact everyone on my team has more than a 1.2 average on a weekly basis, including the new people. The reason the company needs a 1.2 av is because you will be losing the charity and the company money if you do not do this.

Being a team leader i get paid for 30 hours per week at £10 an hour, so its a fair wage....... i actually work about 70 hours every week as i plan my day and plan where i will start my day and finsh my day etc according to my map, and traveling to and from work once i have met my team. I have hit bonus (not commision) every single week except my first week. I do everything by the book and i would never sign ANYONE up who could not afford it or i do not think would donate for a minimum of 12 months. I my self donate to two charities regularly one i done through home and 1 i dont through the internet after working that charity for home.


Deadmanbreathing can i ask which office you worked? some of the stuff you said sounded exactly like my training..... word for word, if so you would know who i am as i would often be in and out of training.


As for wages, everything has always been paid on time in my office, few mistakes here and there with some guys but everything has always been fixed.

As for 3 sign ups a day mr orange, there is probably about 20-30 people in the whole company who are capable of doing that every day of the week.

They teach out 2 a day, saying the minimum is actually 1.5 a day to keep your job... 8w5 shifts...... however most offices have consistant people below the 1.5 and they keep there job aslong as they are trying to improve.


The reason they dont pay the training for 30 shifts is because of the such high turnover of staff, 1 in 3 people from training probably make it the 30 shifts, some do 1 and never come back, so of course you wouldnt want to waste money for that.......

[Pixie.91]

UnnamedPoster, may i ask, as i have just got through to the assessment stage, it says you'll get your training pay after 30 shifts, but is it 30 shifts to get your first wage too? I only ask as im skint and may face having shifts to go to that i wont be able to get to if i have to wait a month for my first wage.

[UnnamedPoster]

You get training wage after 30 shifts. You should get weekly wage following week, so anything you have worked mon-sat as in today you should get the following Friday, bonus would be paid the following Friday after your first pay, which office are you at? and which charity?

[chaikhosi]

I worked for Home Fundraising briefly two years ago, in Liverpool. It is a sales job, and pretty hard work, but I wasn't getting any scam vibes. Really I'd recommend it, if only to find out if you can hack it as a sales type (I couldn't!). You have nothing to lose cause there is a £7 basic hourly wage.

I saw one of their ads on a jobsite, and rang them up. They told me to come in for an interview at the Jobcentre which lasted half an hour, and then training at their office which was two half days of roleplaying and working out a "pitch". I got loads of help, basically they give you ideas and examples but they want you to adapt it, so you have something that doesn't feel like reading a script. I did Barnardos but they work with other charities too.

The work is going door to door between 3pm and 9pm, with 4 or 5 people in the team. Your team leader tells you what streets to do, and keeps track of everyone's score and direct debit forms. From Liverpool, if you are working within the Merseytravel day pass area you have to get there yourself, but beyond that they will pay your tickets. I was in Crewe for two shifts, which they paid for.

You don't get paid for training, but after that it's weekly straight into your bank account. They pay 1 week in arrears, so if you start Monday you will get paid a week on Friday.

They don't expect you to make sales immediately on your first shift, and I was given loads of help from everyone I worked with - but if you don't start to improve within a week or two, you will get the sack. They want you working towards getting 2 signups a day, more or less. I only managed 6 in three weeks, and that's how long I lasted :-)

I did get all my basic pay, though I had to ring the head office in London to chase the last week's money. It all seemed pretty disorganised, but like I said, everyone was really helpful.

Your mileage may vary, but for me no regrets.

[swarls]

I recently got a job at home fundraising and to put it down to a T is a sales job.

At first i was very excited for it as i thought I'd be making a difference while getting paid and in some ways you are making a difference, but when i went in for the training it soon hit home that you might as well be selling double glazing to them.

In the training you learn about the charity that you have been selected to work for you have to do a presentation about it all and sit in front of slides for a good few hours while some one goes on about how ethical the company is. ( Training isn't paid until 30 shifts after)

The flat rate of 7 pound an hour is true, and is what tempted me to work for them but they want you in the offices at least 1/2 hours before your shift starts which are unpaid so it doesn't work out as that as well as travelling to the location you are on that day. Also you are expected to pay for your own travel to the areas that you are working at.

They also say that it's not a commission based job but you can get a lot more wages in 'bonus' which is just a sugar coated way of saying commission.

They supply you with a script that you are meant to learn off by heart, and you can easily replace the said charities names with some double glazing or other door to door company and it works just the same.


Not knocking the company at all, every one seemed very friendly who was working there, and it did feel like a good atmosphere with all the team leaders and office people but when speaking to the fundraisers themselves it wasn't so up beat, one guy i spoke said he's had disciplinary actions because he hasn't had enough people sign up which i find ridiculous how can it be his fault that no one wants to sign up? If people want to give to charity they will, no one likes being forced into something which is essentially what you are doing if they say no, you have to reconfirm it with them make them feel a bit guilty about it all.

If you can deal hard work, walking about knocking on peoples doors in the cold, getting rejected over and over again and getting the odd 'donor' it's the job for you.

[Bumblebee93]

(Original post by deadmanbreathing)
You are building up a picture of desperation to the 'potential donor', then making them feel guilty if they where not to sign up on the spot. They are then argued (objection handled) into purchasing a peace of conscience that makes their guilt go away.
The people most likely to give are those whom really cannot afford to do so, and the most affluent rarely ever give.

Although I do agree that those in affluent areas do not donate as much as they could definitely afford to do so without affecting their quality of life, I disagree that the fundraisers 'guilt' potential donors into donating. In my experience of working at Home Fundraising, in training we were taught NOT to even ATTEMPT to guilt potential donors for one very good reason: A good donor is a happy donor. Home Fundraising encourage fundraisers to make a donor feel great about donating, this is because the chosen charity will receive LONG TERM support only from those who want to do so in their hearts. Home Fundraising quickly realise when a donor has been guilt-tripped when the donor cancels their payment a few months later- this is not good for the charity, which is home Fundraising's reason for existence.
The branch of Home Fundraising at which I work thoroughly discourages the use of guilt-tripping or preying on the vulnerable, this is one of the reasons why we are not on commission so we do not feel the need to do so.

[andolio]

i just got a call for interview today and the interview is tomorrow....i was quite excited at first but looking through this post im starting to have doubts.....do you knock on doors by yourself or with a team member?? and im not amazing with talking so if i keep getting rejected does that mean i will be taken off the team??

[AestheticOverload]

Jobs like this are terrible in that they offer very little security as opposed to normal ones. You have to hit certain targets and if you don't, as Bumblebee says, you'll get kicked off the team. And it's really not that easy to hit those targets. SOme may argue that it can be sometimes, but that depends on a lot of factors. You have to be extremely persuasive to get someone who has flat out said NO to still sign up. And be careful about being pushy, as things can get nasty even though you don't see it coming. It's that simple. Yeah, they'll tell you how you'll be alright, etc etc, but if I were you, I'd just do it to have some charity work on your CV, and don't think of it as much else. They're constantly recycling staff.

But if you are VERY confident in your sales pitch, then... you might enjoy it. Lol. But it's ridiculously hard work, in that you have to have very thick skin. You WILL receive more rejections than sign ups. And only two types of people do it. The genuinely enthusiastic people, and the extremely desperate people.

(Original post by andolio)
i just got a call for interview today and the interview is tomorrow....i was quite excited at first but looking through this post im starting to have doubts.....do you knock on doors by yourself or with a team member?? and im not amazing with talking so if i keep getting rejected does that mean i will be taken off the team??

Yes. They can't exactly keep paying you when you're "under performing". Some people say you'll be alright, and that it's not hard to hit these targets. But you won't be hitting them forever. You'll just have to hope you don't have a lot of dry spells. Usually you knock on doors yourself, but you move out as a team. Sometimes you knock on doors in teams of two. I actually did this job myself some years ago, and it's nice I guess. The best things I got out of it was the friendships. I met a few cool people, and it was pretty funny when you share stories later on of the people you ran into and interesting convos you had. And your team mates always cheer you on.