Solicitation at work

[nsmith]

I have a policy that I held to all through my kids grade school years. I never purchased anything from the school. We live in a congested area and could always purchase these items for much less. When we had the money I would just send in a donation of say $10 - $25. When we didn't have the extra I continued to volunteer at the school as always and felt that was my donation. The same with sports and activities. My husband and I always donated our time.

We support our church, but again I teach CCD so I also look at that as a donation to my church. We also support the House of Charities through our church.

I have a more difficult time with collection in work. There is always a envelope collecting for someone. If you are out sick, have a death in your family, having a baby (not just the first one but every one) we have even held showers for the mothers of teenage girls who got pregnant in high school.

When my grandmother died I ask for no collection to be taken, but when my sister died I asked any money collected to be donated to the cancer research hosptial that treated her.

 

[belle's mom]

I'm one of "those" parents. I refuse to do the school fundraisers. Where I work there are several of us with kids in the same school. I will give a flat donation instead of buying stuff I don't want or need.

However I am a Girl Scout leader for my daughters troop. I won't ask anyone up front, but many co workers and customers have a serious addiction to Thin Mints and constantly come to me asking if its cookie time yet. (Just had someone ask last week- cookie sales don't start to January and we get the cookies in February)

I do have one coworker that buys nuts and candy from the other Girl Scout fundraiser. She buys them for her mother that lives out of state. Every couple of weeks she sends her a "just because" care package of little things she knows her mom won't buy for herself. She told me last year to bring her the order form when it's available, if someone sees it and wants to order great but I won't hound anyone about it. I kept the order form in my office so no one felt obligated or pressured. KWIM

 

[jlima]

I used to work for a company in Atlanta that FORCED you to "donate" to United Way each pay check. It was ridiculous. Just so they could say they had 100% participation. We literally had the division managers asking for the names of the employees who did NOT contribute and each of them was confronted individually and told that they MUST contribute. Seriously...

I would have contacted the local UW and tried to speak with their campaign director or community affairs director or even their local CEO . . . this isn't how UW is supposed to work. They would, in all likelihood, rather not get any donations from that company, that be a part of a situation like this.

 

[KAMKIM]

I work at a fairly large company. Our corporate office has around 150 employees. My big peeve is they are always looking for donations for this cause and that. That's fine, I got the email you gave me the info on who I need to see or send my donation to. But it doesnt' stop there they always have these people walk around from office to office and cube to cube asking you to support their cause with a donation. I feel this is wrong. Yes you can say no but not without embarrassment, although honestly I have no problem. I guess I'm standing up for some co-workers who are really having a tough time in this economy with pay cuts and what not. So what do you all think, is it right for a company to send its employees around office to office taking contributions for charities? Is there any HR people who could chime in? I just wonder if I'm off base here in my irritation with this practice. Thanks

My company has a policy against this. We cannot sell to other coworkers, for charity or schools - doesn't matter. I dont ask others to buy fundraisers for our girls - I think it just gets to be too much. If they are selling candles I'll buy a couple and ask Grandma maybe but thats it.

 

[KAMKIM]

I'm one of "those" parents. I refuse to do the school fundraisers. Where I work there are several of us with kids in the same school. I will give a flat donation instead of buying stuff I don't want or need.

However I am a Girl Scout leader for my daughters troop. I won't ask anyone up front, but many co workers and customers have a serious addiction to Thin Mints and constantly come to me asking if its cookie time yet. (Just had someone ask last week- cookie sales don't start to January and we get the cookies in February)

I do have one coworker that buys nuts and candy from the other Girl Scout fundraiser. She buys them for her mother that lives out of state. Every couple of weeks she sends her a "just because" care package of little things she knows her mom won't buy for herself. She told me last year to bring her the order form when it's available, if someone sees it and wants to order great but I won't hound anyone about it. I kept the order form in my office so no one felt obligated or pressured. KWIM

Yes Girl Scout Cookies seem to sell themselves. Coworkers know I am a leader and will ask ahead of time to purchase some boxes.

 

[MarilIncredible]

My office has a no solicitation rule. There are a couple of people I am friends with, and if I wanted sponsors for a Dog Walk for Charity or something, I might approach them individually during lunch or after work, but I can't just go around and bug everyone to give me money.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I had my own rules which I followed.

1. I would every payday contribute to the office "flower fund" which was banked and auditied. It was used for flowers or other gifts for people in the office when either there was a death in the immediate family or the worker was hospitalized.

2. I always contributed by payroll deduction to the Combined Federal Campaign and/or United Way.

3. For people involved in a charitable physical endeaveor, such as a bicycle or foot race, I would "purchase" a sponsorship which would be payment of a fixed amount to the charity per mile by that particular participant.

4. When a person's child was selling items to raise money for the charity, I required that the child call me (either at work or I would give my home phone number to the worker) and the child would have to ask me to make the donation and handle the ordering over thephone,. I would make the payment to and accept the item(s) from the parent, but it had to be the child making the sale.

5. For anything else I asked for printed materials and stated that if I decided to make a donation to that cause I would make it directly to the organization, with a mention of who had solicited the donation. But I would never tell the individual directly if I did or did not make any contribution.

 

[WillCAD]

I've never worked in an office with a no solicitiation rule. Fortunately, I've never worked in an office where one was needed! My coworkers have allways been casual and low-key about their various donations and sales; items for sale and pledge sheets for charity events sit on a communal table, and people participate if they want.

The only thing that goes cube-to-cube in our office are sports pools.

 

[Worfiedoodles]

I work in a non-profit, so perhaps it's different. I would not dream of asking my co-workers to buy my ds's candy, etc.! We do not have a no solicitation policy, but it really isn't needed. Nobody is asking others to buy this stuff. We just write a check to the school and call it a day -- I don't know if my co-workers do the same, or sell with the other parent.

My current agency would also never ask employees to contribute to the agency. Which is refreshing! I've worked for plenty where it was almost mandatory. We do make a contribution through my dh's paycheck -- an automatic deduction each week. I like doing it because it's a cause I believe in, but I certainly don't feel obligated. I like doing it through dh's check so it's more anonymous. I'm not giving so my co-workers can see what I'm doing, I'm doing it because I genuinely believe in the work we do.

Maria

 

[SandrA9810]

Kari's always donated to a company sponsered charity. Like at HD, she'd give 1.50$ per week, and now at Disney she give 1.50$ to United Way.

Although once a year the company does a big fundraiser thing to UW, and if a department reaches 90% participation, they give out tickets to the water parks or something. And the managers will go down the list and call every one down to a computer. The only difference is, you log in and either make a donation or decline, and no one has to know what you choose or how much you choose. As long as you participate.