That's fucking stupid

Justgiving.com is a business that was set up with one goal: to make it easier for people to raise money for charity by letting individuals create their own online fundraising pages. To date, they have helped 8 million people raise £476m for 7,479 charities. This is great work.

They have received criticism before, from ignorant fools that don’t understand how businesses work. They do charge fees, but they are tiny really when you think about it. In addition, the tedious process of claiming gift aid is done by justgiving, so the charity can use its time being more charitable. When someone that complains they charge talks to you, ask them how they would live if they didn’t receive any money from their employer. Or, if time is short, call them a stupid cunt and be on your way.

Unfortunately for justgiving, they had an upgrade, and it went awry. They totally overhauled the site, and rewrote it with entirely new code. This was on Saturday 20th June. Bear that in mind for the highlighted fucktards later. After the upgrade, some 20% were not able to donate, the paypal donation system went down, and people had difficulties accessing their page, and setting up new ones. This was unacceptable. >Justgiving themselves said so and apologised.

What was good was that they worked their asses off to correct the problems.

A lot of people got frustrated. This was understandable. You would have thought though, that a bunch of evidently charitable people would have been, well, more charitable. Fair enough I suppose, for those that have worked hard and want to raise as much as they physically can for causes close to their hearts. But come on, it’s just a few days.

Given that 80% of donations were going through and that justgiving took well over £2 million when everything was going tits up, it wasn’t as big a catastrophe as some of the comments on justgiving’s blog made out. However, as we will soon see, not everyone should have left a comment. You see, unfortunately for justgiving, they had to read comments from people that were just wasting their time. Their main issue was either: their own incompetence – the fact that they couldn’t be arsed to fundraise properly, got close to their event and used justgiving as an excuse – or that they were just being cocks.

Here are some examples:

Anne C and Jakie highlight their own stupidity. Both have complained about the site not working. The links provided by them on the justgiving blog comments are http://www.justgiving/big_bike_ride and http://www.khhmidnightwalk3/

Perhaps looking in a mirror will help you identify the problem. Before you complain to people who have had a major piece of recoding to do, the least you can do is appear competent enough to get a simple URL correct. Stop wasting busy people’s time. Given your evidently limited intelligence, it would be best served focused on your fundraising.

Others meanwhile have made fuck all effort to fundraise, and have left things too late. Thankfully, instead of letting down their charity, friends and family by failing to fundraise the required amount, they now have someone else to blame for their short comings!

Take Eiona Roberts. She’s admitted to feeling humiliated. Rightly so. Her page has been active since January. Her event is in (as of writing) 4 days. Her target is £2,000. In the six months before the upgrade, she managed £415. So, with just over a week to go, she was still just over £1,500 short of her target. Since the upgrade, she has received £423 in donations any way. Her comments both highlight the fact she fucked up her own fundraising, but also that she has received more donations whilst there were problems than when she was sat on her arse doing nothing. Could it be that the extra attention has brought in more donations, and the problems have actually done her a favour?

Even worse are Mark and Steve. Their event is on 25/07/09. Their first donation on their page was on 10/06/09. They want £1,000. They have £175. Before the upgrade, they had £115. So they were £885 short of their target. I expect, given their challenge, they were busy training. But that’s no excuse to complain to justgiving. Remember, justgiving is there to help with your fundraising, not do it for you. When taking on a challenge, if you want to raise a lot of money, you also have to plan for that side of things, not just the train. Get on your bike.

Richard>, as his name suggests, is just a dick. He writes:

“tried several times to donate
Can’t be bothered to try again.
I cycled 140 miles.
I have all this money from family & friends.
I am goint to spend it at Amerzon.co.uk and on beer.
Cheers !!!”

Either he’s posting this to just highlight the fact that he loves to kick people when they’re down, and isn’t actually telling the truth (a lot of losers that are good at dishing it out but can’t take it, like to boast). However, if he’s telling the truth, then that there is not only fraud, for which he should be arrested, but also shows what a brainless moron he is for not being able to put a cheque in the post, or donate on line direct at the charity’s website. On top of that, it’s a little rich to moan to justgiving, when you’re admitting to actively deceiving people and stealing money from a charity, as opposed to, as in justgiving’s case, having a glitch for a few days. All in all, you’re your just another dick with no balls.

Good luck to everyone fundraising for your causes, and for the challenges you’re undertaking. Just remember: justgiving is there to assist your fundraising. It won’t do it for you. If it goes down, think. You’re fundraising for a charity. Maybe phone that charity. You’ll be surprised to find out that charities have their own bank accounts where they put their money. Also, they receive lots of money direct into those accounts. They visit them, and put cheques and cash straight in. If you can’t grasp these things, it’s best not to bite off more than you can chew. I’d suggest working harder, and getting a promotion so you can afford a direct debit for your cause. However, given your whining “I’m a victim attitude” I suspect you all get passed over for promotions, despite the fact “I do lots of stuff for charity”. My advice, volunteer instead. Nothing too complex, just stuffing envelopes. Something you can’t fuck up.

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