When doing telephone fundraising coaching I often hear stories about how rude people can be to the fundraisers. Here’s food for thought when dealing with rude people.
1. They feel safe because you can’t get at them
2. They’re trying to impress someone in their room who is listening
The best advice is to shrug your shoulders, feel sorry for them, then move on to the next call.
There are lots of nice, caring people out there.
You just have to find them.
charitymattersnz.com 
Thanks for your comment Kat – I know what you mean, I put this up more a joke for telephone fundraisers than those who receive the calls. I coach fundraisers on scripting and the first thing I say is throw out the script – have a sheet with some key points, the rest should be real conversation and show the personality of the caller, and allow for real interaction with the person being called.If organisations only want to use a script they may as well use an auto dialler and have a pre-recording message.I also suggest that if people are picking up the phone for a donation – they should put it down immediately, a call should be about awareness first – any donation will come as a result of awareness being gained.