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fund raising

longman

Has anyone else been approached by phone by a commercial fund-raiser acting for NAS? It is one of those that takes a third of the money raised for administration. They started by thanking me for supporting NAS, then a spiel about what NAS does for children, and then asked me to go further and make a monthlu contribution. Personally I'm wary of such systems that take a cut for themselves so said I'd think about it and make my own arrangements, particularly as I'm on a pension.

It was odd however to then be asked for my year of birth, and then to be asked to confirm that I had aspergers.

Usually these types of fundraiser look for new sources of funds rather than just going through the existing contact list.

And should they be approaching people on the spectrum, or parents of people on the spectrum in this way?

Chap I spoke to was nice enough, and seemed well enough informed about what NAS was doing, but I was left feeling this wasn't right.  Also I think NAS ought to declare on the website that such phonecalls are being made.

I'm left feeling puzzled why he needed to know my birth year and whether I was on the spectrum.

Could the NAS Moderators shed some light?

Parents

  • Don't think I gave away any other personal details, but its the year born bit that does worry me, as that can be used by fraudsters.

    The approach seemed convincingly on the back of the anniversary thanking people for their support messages, but any con could have picked up on that. However if so most people phoned wouldn't probably understand why they were being thanked, so it leads me to suppose that the caller was working from an official NAS list. But then again, how secure is that list?

    He told me a lot about what NAS was doing for children including new legislation coming through to facilitate diagnosis and reduce the delays. But he didn't seem to know much about the adult side.

    Then when the donations bit came in and the one third going to his organisations' costs I realised I was talking to a fund raising agent, not someone from NAS. That needs to be made clear from the start.

    NAS has a regular payment arrangement already which takes only 3% for admin. Do they need a fund raiser who takes a third?

    NAS needs to be careful about this. Mishandled approaches to existing supporters could do a lot of harm.

    While his request for my year of birth worries me, and the need to confirm my autism status, which I probably wouldn't have done but for being off-guard after a long conversation that seemed genuine.

    But thinking back the caller misled me into thinking he was from NAS, and clearly he was from an independent fund raiser.

    Could NAS come back to me on this because it may be I need to notify the police about a scam.

Reply

  • Don't think I gave away any other personal details, but its the year born bit that does worry me, as that can be used by fraudsters.

    The approach seemed convincingly on the back of the anniversary thanking people for their support messages, but any con could have picked up on that. However if so most people phoned wouldn't probably understand why they were being thanked, so it leads me to suppose that the caller was working from an official NAS list. But then again, how secure is that list?

    He told me a lot about what NAS was doing for children including new legislation coming through to facilitate diagnosis and reduce the delays. But he didn't seem to know much about the adult side.

    Then when the donations bit came in and the one third going to his organisations' costs I realised I was talking to a fund raising agent, not someone from NAS. That needs to be made clear from the start.

    NAS has a regular payment arrangement already which takes only 3% for admin. Do they need a fund raiser who takes a third?

    NAS needs to be careful about this. Mishandled approaches to existing supporters could do a lot of harm.

    While his request for my year of birth worries me, and the need to confirm my autism status, which I probably wouldn't have done but for being off-guard after a long conversation that seemed genuine.

    But thinking back the caller misled me into thinking he was from NAS, and clearly he was from an independent fund raiser.

    Could NAS come back to me on this because it may be I need to notify the police about a scam.

Children
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