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I admire the work of the Open Rights Group, but it bothers me that they try to funnel you towards making Direct Debit (recurring, straight from your bank accoun

by davb 12y ago

I admire the work of the Open Rights Group, but it bothers me that they try to funnel you towards making Direct Debit (recurring, straight from your bank account) contributions and make it difficult to find the one-off donation button. Six links to recurring payments on https://www.openrightsgroup.org/join/ https://www.openrightsgroup.org/join/ and only one to one-off donations. And even after clicking on that, I have to scroll past more Direct Debit links to get to the one-off payment section. Perhaps I'm just cynical, but I never give charitable donations on a recurring basis. What if I don't support their actions in the future? Or I deem another cause more worthy, at a point in time, of my donations? I have to take action to cancel the Direct Debit. I know it's probably cheaper for them, and it encourages people to sign up and forget that they're contributing, but it feels too much like their website is pushing you towards that and your one-off contribution isn't good enough.

Already__Taken 12y ago
On the other side, if I were running a business on donations I'd sleep far happier at night and concentrate on my goals a lot more with smaller steady recurring donations. As opposed to being on a constant funding drive.
ElliotH 12y ago
Just for historical context, ORG itself was started by pledges of recurring donations of £5 a month. I'd guess that's why the notion of 'Join' is still front and centre.
ajb 12y ago
I normally don't either, but in this case the value is that ORG gets more political clout as a membership organisation than it would as a pure donation funded one. They get to say, 'we represent X000 members, of whom x00 vote in your constituency'. As you note, this does mean you have to check whether what they are saying continues to represent you ,and resign if not. But this hassle does buy you something. Perhaps the web site should make that pitch rather than making the donate option more obscure, though.

by davb 12y ago

Already__Taken 12y ago

On the other side, if I were running a business on donations I'd sleep far happier at night and concentrate on my goals a lot more with smaller steady recurring donations. As opposed to being on a constant funding drive.

ElliotH 12y ago

Just for historical context, ORG itself was started by pledges of recurring donations of £5 a month. I'd guess that's why the notion of 'Join' is still front and centre.

ajb 12y ago

I normally don't either, but in this case the value is that ORG gets more political clout as a membership organisation than it would as a pure donation funded one. They get to say, 'we represent X000 members, of whom x00 vote in your constituency'. As you note, this does mean you have to check whether what they are saying continues to represent you ,and resign if not. But this hassle does buy you something. Perhaps the web site should make that pitch rather than making the donate option more obscure, though.