The Daily Telegraph Editorial: Charities targeting older Australians

YOUNGER people just beginning their working careers tend not to have enormous levels of disposable income. But charities and fundraisers have evidently worked out where the money is — the older Australians.

VARIOUS publishers and broadcasters, notably the ABC, have made recent determined drives to attract the apparently valuable youth market. These attempts have not been wholly successful, for numerous reasons.

Firstly, the youth market is notoriously elusive. Younger Australians have grown up online, and do not behave as a cohesive tribe. They are less a generation than a very diverse collective of individuals whose primary shared point of commonality is age.

Secondly, commercial media advertisers often shy away from campaigns and programming aimed at younger audiences because they don’t generate a sufficient return on investment.

Younger people just beginning their working careers tend not to have enormous levels of disposable income.

But charities and fundraisers have evidently worked out where the money is.

As The Daily Telegraph today reveals, charities’ staffers who sign up older Australians are paid significant bonuses — because the older demographic is more well off and far less likely to cancel their charity memberships.

Wilderness Society “chuggers” are being told to target older Australians. Picture: Annette Dew

For example, the Wilderness Society pays face-to-face fundraisers up to $90 each for signing new members aged 45 and older who make cash pledges. That’s three times the $30 it pays fundraisers for each donor aged 18 to 20.

According to Public Fundraising Regulatory Association chief executive Peter Hills-Jones, charities mine their membership date in order to “identify those people who’re most able to become long-term, committed donors”.

“Donors of all ages are vitally important for charities, but most evidence suggests that those over 45 tend to remain with a charity for longer,” Hills-Jones said. This stands to reason. Someone in their 40s or 50s is generally much more able to absorb a monthly hit of $50 or so than someone in their late teens or early 20s. At that age, $50 is frequently someone’s entire bank balance.

This information should also be of value to older Australians who find themselves frequently approached by charity collectors. There is a reason why those collectors allow teens to walk by but make a direct line for you.

Charitable donations are admirable, if the cause is just, but older Australians should not allow themselves to be seen as walking ATMs.

If you’ve worked hard all your life to attain a certain level of financial security, you have earned the right to decide exactly where that money goes.

Napa keeps kit on with pride

THE Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs brought shame upon the NRL last month with naked antics during their club’s Mad Monday celebrations. By complete contrast, Sydney Roosters star Dylan Napa celebrated his team’s huge grand final success by defiantly keeping all of his playing uniform very much on.

Dylan Napa celebrated Roosters’ Premiership win by staying in the gear he played in. Picture John Grainger

More than 12 hours after Sunday’s victory, following an evening of toasts, Napa turned up at the Roosters fan day still wearing his full grand final kit — including his boots. Cooper Cronk and Blake Ferguson’s on-field heroics are now matched by Napa’s off-field commitment. No wonder the Roosters took the flag.

Plans for Down Underground

SOME of the richest histories of the world’s greatest cities are literally underground. London has a number of underground Roman ruins. New York has its City Hall subway station, closed since the end of World War II. The Old City in Jerusalem features evening tours of its historic underground structures.

And Sydney has an astonishing 90-year-old network of never-used rail tunnels. Even better, we should soon be able to eat and drink in them.

Sydney’s underground may be transformed into a hub with bars and clubs. Picture: Supplied

Those tunnels, part of planned eastern and western suburb line extensions, were originally completed in 1926 — just in time to be shut down by the Great Depression. No trains ever ran through them. That generation’s loss is clearly our gain. The state government is now seeking investors who may convert those tunnels into high-end evening venues. Any conversation should preserve Sydney’s history while at the same time celebrating it. Here’s to the rail workers of the 1920s.