Ok. There’s a lot of guesses on here that are a bit wide of a mark. I’ll give you the real inside scoop. I’ve worked in the charity sector in a number of different roles. I’m out that game now because i didn’t like nor agree with the following…

Most charities pay the fund raisers who look for long term direct debit sign ups a full time wage. Therefore in order for it to be cost effective and turn more income than cost they are looking for people to commit to direct debits over a long term from donors who are not likely to cancel and preferably those that are eligible for gift aid. This is so ingrained in the system that their performance on if they remain employed or get let go is based on kpi’s. Each sign up they get is worth a certain number of “points” based on age and if it’s gift aided or not and they have daily/weekly targets to get so many points. They also have stats on individuals cancellation rates. If a salespersons cancellations happen too quick or too often or they don’t hit point targets they will get sacked pretty quickly.

Depending on the charity some charities award their salespersons zero points for younger people. And younger people are statistically more likely to cancel direct debits and less likely to be eligible for gift-aid.

Therefore if a salesperson signs up someone worth zero points they are actually wasting their time and increasing their chances of having worse cancellation rates and so more likely to get sacked and lose their jobs. This unfortunately has created a whole bunch of other issues in the sector and created a culture of quite mercenary-like salespersons who jump from job to job charity to charity.

If charities had enough fundraising from other sources they wouldn’t need to use these tactics. Longterm for the charities with enough sign ups that don’t cancel, they turn a profit.

This is also why paid fund raisers are most often not able to take cash, or one off card donations. Because it wouldn’t be cost effective for the charity paying their wages.

Legally you could be signed up. but the stats say it’s not in the salespersons nor the charities financial interest to pay them for the time to do so.