Gypsy Creams
Door-to-Door Chugging
Woman's Weekly / 16th April 1965
I’d assumed that charities collected donations through cheques/postal orders in the days before direct debits, but of course, bank accounts were quite a new thing at the time of this ad, and it’s quite likely that people wouldn’t have enough spare money which would make going to the bother of a postal order for a one-off donation worth it. So, as with mail-order shopping, this ad shows that Oxfam used agents to collect regular donations from neighbours or colleagues.
Presumably this was an early effort to secure a regular income, as the organisation was formed in 1942, originally called the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, and you can see the Oxford postal address on the coupon. This obviously makes small donations far easier to collect, as the administration cost for the postal order would then be worth it, and, if you’ve got a particularly persuasive agent, it’s likely that someone will give more if asked face-to-face! Also, imagine being the only house in the street who ISN’T giving something. I can see the appeal!
As my modern title suggests, the people approaching you in the street for charity donations nowadays are basically professional versions of these agents, as fundraising has become increasingly professionalised over the years, and although they no doubt raise a great deal of money, it’s not without some controversy. The determined nature of some fundraisers has lead to them being accused of ‘charity mugging’, shortened to ‘chugging’, in the media, and it’s certainly true that you can’t build up the same relationship of trust that housewives of old could do with their agent. The resentment against the ‘chuggers’ is possibly more to do with the increasingly depersonalising effect of technology, than with any resentment about giving to charity. A direct debit won’t let you off one month if they can see you struggling to make ends meet, for example!
Tags: Oxfam, social history
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