PFRA officially endorses the word 'chugger'

Fundraising | Tania Mason | 21 Jul 2010

The Public Fundraising Regulatory Association has officially endorsed the word ‘chugger’ by announcing it will use it in engagement with stakeholders, “when appropriate”.

Although the PFRA has been using the word in certain circumstances for years now, today it issued an official position statement stating that use of the term has now been discussed and approved by its communications and engagement committee.

According to head of communications Ian MacQuillin, use of the word by the public has only become widespread since 2009.

Although it was coined from the words ‘charity’ and ‘mugger’ and used for many years as a negative and insulting term, many people now use it as a neutral, descriptive term rather than with any negative connotations.

MacQuillin said: “Although fundraisers perceive that ‘chugger’ is predominantly used pejoratively, PFRA has detected a shift in its usage. We have been monitoring social media networks since November 2009. Early indications are that there are eight or nine daily uses of ‘chugger’ in a fundraising context, about 50 per cent of which come through Twitter.

“However, only a third of these are negative uses, the rest are classified as neutral.”

MacQuillin also said that many people outside London are unaware of the word and its meaning, and if ‘chugger’ is to become a more widely adopted term then the PFRA wants to use the word with its neutral meaning in discussions with regional stakeholders “before they become familiar with its minority pejorative use”.

However, he stressed the term would only be used where appropriate. “We will not be adopting ‘chugger’ as our default term for a street face-to-face fundraiser.”

Directory: The Public Fundraising Regulatory Association (PFRA)
Who's Who: Ian MacQuillin

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.