{In this month’s guest post, Joe Flood seeks your opinion on non-profit, street solicited “guilt-payments.” Through a PR lens, I see street solicitation as a sure way to decrease the validity of your brand and strength of your reputation. What’s your take? Read Joe’s post and share your thoughts below!}

One of the annoyances of urban life is the proliferation of people asking for money. We’ve all seen them– homeless men parked outside of stores, cup of change jingling in one hand.

However, the streets of DC feature another group angling for cash. They’re well-scrubbed young folks and they cry, “Do you have a minute for the environment?” Or poverty. Or AIDS.

They position themselves on opposite ends of the block, so they can harangue pedestrians going by in both directions. Clipboards in hand, canned spiels at the ready, they’re from organizations like Greenpeace and the Save the Children.

But is this really a good way to market your organization? Greenpeace and Save the Children are large international organizations, with thousands of employees and budgets in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Why would these major brands want to ask for money on the street? By doing so, they cheapen their reputation and associate it with people who try to stop you on the sidewalk – the homeless and scam artists.

And for what? How much can a pair of volunteers make in an hour on a Washington street? A hundred bucks? And during that hour, how many people avoid your fundraisers and associate your organization with the unpleasant experience of street harassment?

Donors want to feel that their contributions solve problems and are not merely guilt-payments. They also want to be a part of reputable, professional organizations. Sending out college kids to solicit on the street reflects poorly on the causes that they represent.

What do you think? Do you get tired of being asked for money? Do you think less of the nonprofits that do this?

Joe Flood is a writer, photographer and web person. He’s written articles, short stories, an award-winning screenplay and recently published his first novel, Murder in Ocean Hall. Learn more at joeflood.com.