Does anyone know anything about a company called Chestnut House? They call businesses to advertise on year planners they say are to help the Honeyrose Foundation charity for sick & dying kids. They phoned me 2 weeks ago and asked if I'd sponsor the Essex year planner with an advert for my company. It sounded like a really worthwhile cause and the business they promised I'd get from the advert sounded fantastic too, the lad said 100,000 year planners are sent out to Essex businesses and organisations. I don't know what to do though because I've since done a search in google and loads of bad stuff comes up about them. Has anyone advertised with them? If so I'd appriciate your opinions on the subject, I'm new to business and don't know much about this sort of thing. The lads calling me back this week and I don't know if if should help them of not, I'm going off the idea; what do you all think?
Last edited by stuffit1; 30th July 2007 at 10:22 AM.
Don't bother - refuse.
My father got caught up in one of these a few years ago - if you agree to one, you'll get calls from other companies doing the same thing - one call was from a company saying that he'd already agreed to place an ad in their calendar and threatened to take him to court if he didn't pay.
A mate had a job selling charity advertising, he said it was a great job at first making plenty of money witha really effective sales script. The fact was that less than 1% of the money raised went to the charities in question. Eventually his concience got the better of him and he moved on.
You'll note that Chestnut House is not a Charity, the Charity in question is http://www.honeyrosefoundation.co.uk/
You'll also note that the salesman conjours up an image of sick and dying kids. Won't somebody please think of the children?
Looking at the website the foundation specifically excludes children.
With that level of honesty can you expect a full and frank answer to the obvious question "How much of the fee that I pay will end up in the hands of the Foundation?" If this is a similar scam then the answer given will be "All of it" whereas the true answer could well be next to nothing.
If you want to make your own donation do so directly or take part in one of their fund raising activities http://www.honeyrosefoundation.co.uk/fundraising.html and if you can use Gift Aid then they'll actually recieve more than you donate. http://www.honeyrosefoundation.co.uk/donate.html
If you're just interested in the effectiveness of the advertising then simply look for testimonials regarding this method of advertising. Personally I've worked for a number of businesses in Essex and never recieved such a wall planner. I've seen such wall planners in the past but I know of nobody who has engaged new business through an advert on a wall planner. However if you can find one look at the busnesses and call them up. Ask them if they found the advert effective.
I used to get similar calls from a firm trying to sell advertising space (sponsorship, they called it) in road safety guides for kiddies. The salesman would ring every year and tell me "you were in it last year, do you want to go in on the same terms this year". This was a bare faced lie and used to irritate the hell out of me.
Don't be suckered into handing over money just because it is "in a good cause". Remind yourself that it is up to you how and when and to what organisation you wish to give charitable donations, and not some dipstick who has just cold called you with an advertising pitch.
Matt's post is right, if it is effective advertising (which I doubt, a yellow pages ad. would probably be money better spent) then go for it. If it is effective charitable giving, to a cause which you support, then go for it. If it is neither (which I suspect) then send them packing.
Thanks for all the advice guys, I told the lad no when he called back in the week and he was quite rude to me when I questioned his integrity and enquired how much commission he’s on. Interestingly, I looked on the Honeyrose Foundations website and it clearly states that only 5% of Chestnut House's profits goes to them, which is certainly not what their lad told me 2 weeks ago. I’ve asked them to remove me from their database.
Is it any wonder that we refuse to give to charity. This is why genuine charities are suffering. I make it a point to choose a charity, I go to them, I don’t entertain anyone who comes to me. I think we all know where the real charities are.
the best thing to do when someone rings you up with an offer like that ask them how much they are asking for and which charity they are doing it for and then say 'right i'll write a cheuqe out right now and send it directly to the charity all my advertising needs are met already thank you' and then hang up LOL
Makes you sick to think that people actually enjoy taking money from people with a kind heart or that have been touched by the Charity in some way. Complete joke. Well you know what they say 'what goes around, comes around' and if people like that were ever in need of care or donations, you can bet that because of their lying ways in the past - people will be more worried about donating.... and definitely think twice.
Makes you sick to think that people actually enjoy taking money from people with a kind heart
what, Like Brian?????
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