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The Giving Green Paper’s suggestion that ATMs and checkouts could encourage giving has got off to a flying start in my local branch of a national pet store chain.
Tills are displaying requests for customers to give change to an animal charity. But who will really be the losers and gainers? It is likely that banks and superstores, if they adopt the policy, will support a small number of big-brand charities and the smaller, less conspicuous charities will find it even harder to attract support.
Making a donation to a charity should be a personal and well-considered decision whereby the donor chooses to support a cause to which they have an affinity, perhaps because the object of the charity is close to their heart or they know someone who has been helped by the charity. And I don’t believe that giving should be triggered by guilt or embarrassment of having been seen not to give. Many donors prefer to make donations tax efficiently by direct debit or one-off payment to preferred causes.
I wonder how the public can be expected to dig deeper in their pockets in an indiscriminate fashion during a recession, when most will be feeling distinctly less well-off, and in some cases to fund some services where government and local authority funding has been cut.
Mike Carter, chief executive, LionHeart
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