Child Cancer Foundation

Now I’m taking a big risk here talking negatively about the Child Cancer Foundation, so let me first start by saying that I think that they are great and you should go support them now. But from a marketing point of view (I work in marketing) and from a frustrated Auckland in a rush point of view, their fundraising methods today raised my blood pressure and didn’t make me inclined to be generous to them.

You see I had to pick up my middle daughter early from school for an appointment, and figured I had time to sneak into Steve’s Models in Papakura. So I’m driving down Great South Road and all of a sudden I hit backed up traffic – I can see road signs ahead and cones, lots of cones. Oh great, road works.

But it wasn’t road works; it was the Child Cancer Foundation, forcing commuters to slow down so that they could ask for donations. And if that wasn’t bad enough, right on the other side of Papakura township, there they were again, double dipping, and forcing me to wait in traffic. There’s nothing easier to get Aucklander’s blood pressure rising than unnecessary traffic problems.

And there’s an easy solution that will raise as much money with out raising blood pressure, and that’s to collect money at traffic lights – It means that the cars are stationary so it’s safer, and traffic isn’t being forced to slow down and back up.

So please, Child Cancer Foundation, and all other well meaning fundraisers, please don’t slow traffic down to ask for money – do it at the traffic lights and I’ll gladly give you my loose change.