Street Fundraisers in S’pore Now Cannot Anyhowly Block Your Way or Make You Feel Guilty

Here’s something that might shock you: do you know that some of those people who linger outside the MRT station, trying to get you to donate to charity, apparently get commission for each “donation”?

And they can get up to 30% of the amount.

Now, I can’t be certain but a few years back, a friend told me that some of these people didn’t have any basic pay: their remuneration is purely commission-based.

Which explains why some of them have resorted to several tactics that are frowned upon, like

• Blocking your way (e.g. standing in front of you)
• Guilt-tripping (e.g. “are you setting a good example for your kids?”)
• Being rude to you (e.g…wait, this one need example meh?)

These conducts obviously haven’t sunk in well with Singaporeans, but we’ve learned to just avoid them.

Now, the Commissioner of Charities has set up a set of guidelines and these people can no longer do that.

Well, kind of.

Read on and you’ll understand.

New Guidelines

A new set of guidelines were published on 21 March 2019 called “The Code”, which means “Code for Commercial Fund-raisers”.

It is a rather comprehensive set of rules and focus on three core principals: legitimacy, accountability and transparency, and it has since taken effect on the day of publication.

Simply put, there are two types to take note of: one is bounded by the law and the other is bounded by…a guide (that means people aren’t breaking the law if they don’t follow the guide).

For the ones that are bounded by law, here are a few important ones:

• Measures must be made to ensure there’s no loss or theft
• Donations must be given direct to the charity first, and the fund-raiser’s pay to be paid separately and not to be deducted from the amount donated
• Anyone who donates more than $200 can seek for a refund within a week

Now, you’ll realise that these rules primarily affect the management of the fund-raiser.

But how about those people who solicited for donation?

A few rules are imposed, but note that they’re not bounded by the laws but merely a rule. They can’t do these:

When knocking on doors:

• cause annoyance to any person or remain at the door of or in any premises, if requested by an occupant thereof to leave; or
• solicit at locations other than the ones stated in the licence authorising them to promote a collection.

When on the streets:

• act in any way that might reasonably cause members of the public to become startled or anxious;
• act dishonestly or manipulatively, or deliberately seek to make a potential donor feel guilty;
• exert undue pressure on members of the public to donate;
• exploit their position for personal gain;
• engage in any other behaviour that harms the reputation of the charity;
• block the public right of way or move to obstruct a member of the public; or
• remain at the door of or in any premises, if requested by the premise’s management/owner to leave the premises.

Now, do note that this is merely the “appropriate behaviour” that fund-raisers must abide to, but if they don’t follow this rule, the commercial fund-raiser might find it harder to get a permit to raise funds in the future.

In other words, the management is responsible for ensuring that their fund-raisers don’t anyhowly pressure people to donate, if not they’ll face the repercussion in the future.

A New Way to Donate

Now, if you’re one who really want to help, I’ll strongly suggest you to advocate for this imitative called “Belanja -A-Meal”.

*Humblebragging beginning, please read on and say I am kind*

So yesterday, at a Bukit Batok coffeeshop, I paid $7.00 for a cai png…and $3 is for a magnet that the cai png uncle stuck on the stall. Whenever a needy person, who must have been vetted before, wants a meal, he or she can use that magnet for a free meal.

I might not have known who I’ve helped, but at least I know the entire $3 is being used to buy a meal for someone who really needs it. But why I still didn’t win 4D yesterday evening? CB seh.

More information about this Belanja-A-Meal can be viewed here:

And yes, of course we’re more familiar with this because our office is in Bukit Batok. Let’s make this initiative more than Bukit Batok!