'Chuggers are damaging our image' says Cumbrian charity chief

John Priddle, of the Eden Valley Hospice, has sought to reassure local supporters that his cause does not use pushy fundraising tactics and never will.

Mr Priddle is chairman of the Carlisle-based hospice and its Jigsaw children’s hospice, which rely heavily on donations just to stay open.

But he has insisted their fundraising team would never resort to some of the approaches now commonly used by many of the bigger charities.

This includes chuggers – a play on the words ‘charity muggers’ to describe paid fundraisers who harass people on the streets, on their doorsteps or via cold calls, pressuring them to sign up to monthly direct debits.

Nationally there has been a growing number of complaints about these practices and in Carlisle, the city council last year launched a clampdown on nuisance chuggers.

Mr Priddle said he is strongly against these practices, as are his fellow trustees and directors and wants to highlight the ethical fundraising they do.

“As far as I’m aware there aren’t any local charities that do this,” he said. “I always said when I became a trustee that if we ever change that I’m leaving.

“I really don’t like it. I was once approached in Lancaster by a children’s charity and when I declined he said ‘so you want children to die?’ That’s just not on. I’d hate to be associated with anything like that.”

Mr Priddle said that it is practices like that which put people off donating to all charities, yet the hospice wouldn’t stay afloat without public support.

He said there is a strict fundraising charter that all the hospice charities in Cumbria sign up to and is displayed on its website.

Mr Priddle explained that the Eden Valley Hospice fundraisers never cold call to ask for donations. The only doorstep collecting they do is to advertise their lottery game, which is carefully monitored.

He said complaints to the hospice are incredibly rare but if they did get one, it would be taken very seriously.

He added that they would never sell on data of any of their donors to other charities or companies – another big complaint nationally.

Many of the big charities have large paid fundraising teams, which some of their income is used to support. But he said to put it into context, some of the biggest organisations have an annual income of hundreds of millions of pounds.

The hospice, on the other hand, has an annual income of just £3 million and has to raise about £2m of that every year through local fundraising.

A lot of that is supported by volunteers, while he said that the salaries they do pay are to local people, which in turn supports the Cumbrian economy.

In total, including nursing and medical staff, the Eden Valley Hospice employs 120 staff and has 450 volunteers. They deliver care and support to those with life-limiting illnesses.

Mr Priddle, a retired solicitor, added: “We don’t have fat cats. We are a local charity treating local people. We are well supported by the community and really value that.”

He said that if anyone wants to support the hospice they don’t need to sign up to a monthly amount, they can make a one-off contribution of any size, take part in one of their annual fundraising events or organise their own.

He said that to him, every single donation is important, whether it is a few pounds or a few thousand pounds. Mr Priddle used an example of a teenage girl who, just because she wanted to help, baked some cakes and sold them to her friends to raise funds.