Really? that sucks. I always feel bad because I feel like I should be donating. Well now I'm going to feel less bad. I always wondered why they never asked for volunteers.
I got suckered in one time for one of them shilling for Sick Kids and gave a couple hundred bucks. That's what he told me, that they sign up specifically to canvass for charities, but not a particular charity, and that they get assigned different ones at different times according to marketing needs, I guess. And, as such, they're not volunteers. They're paid a wage for their time pestering people on the street.
Still good causes, but that's how it is.