Beating bogus charity collectors

THE St Vincent de Paul charity shop in Ennis has seen a 25% fall in donations, with other charity shops believed to be in a similar situation, as efforts are made to beat bogus collectors.
Fred Hannaford, shop manager of the St Vincent de Paul on Parnell Street said well-meaning people are being duped into making donations to bogus collectors that are not going to charity.
A nationwide campaign has been launched by the Irish Charity Shops Association asking the public to donate unwanted clothes and household goods to their local charity shop. From Friday, registered charity shops will be displaying Choose Charity Shops First signs in their shop windows.
Among those will be the St Vincent de Paul. According to Mr Hannaford, “Our donations, like many other charity shops, are reduced by 25% and this is becoming a concern not just to us but to all charity shops. One of the reasons for this are bogus collectors who put leaflets in doors with charity numbers and telephone numbers. When you call the number, nobody answers and the charity numbers are often foreign or don’t exist. This is going on around the county and nationally. People think they are helping a charity and instead the money is going into somebody’s private pocket and it is the charities that are losing out. We are urging people to make a choice to donate to charity shops that are registered, to think about where they are giving their second-hand goods to and think first for charity shops.”
Spokesperson for the Irish Charity Shops Association, Paul Hughes, said “Millions of euros worth of donations intended for registered charities are being stolen or fraudulently solicited from the public every year by bogus collectors and bogus charity shops. These parasites are misleading the public who donate clothes and other unwanted items in the belief that they are supporting legitimate charities.”
In 2011, an Irish Charity Shops Association survey found in the previous two years, over €11 million worth of donations was lost to bogus collectors.