keeping fundraising on the straight and narrow

Excellent fundraising for a better world

Keeping fundraising on the straight and narrowNUS CONFERENCE 2014

Daniel Fluskey, Head of Policy and Research


What will be covered

• Overview of how fundraising is regulated

• Who the different organisations involved are and what they do

• The fundraising ‘rules’ and what happens when it goes wrong

• Common issues and pitfalls

• Fundraising ethics

• ….and any questions


Self-regulation of fundraising


Our Code of Fundraising Practice

Membership body-5,500 individuals-410 charities

Code of Fundraising Practice

Standards expected of all IoF members to follow in their fundraising

Best practice for the wider sector

http://www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk/guidance/code-of-fundraising-practice/





What if charities break the code?

Set the Code

Expect members to follow it

Do not enforce the Code, make rulings, or sanction

Take complaints from members of the public

Make judgments according to the IoF Code

Sanction charities:- Apology- Training- Withdraw fundraising

material


What’s in the Code

• Our values:

Legal OpenHonestRespectful

MUST = a legal requirementOUGHT = a standard set by IoF


What’s in the Code• Direct Marketing

• Telephone Fundraising

• Legacies

• Payment of Fundraisers

• How to handle donations

• Raffles and lotteries …….

Etc, etc!

Gambling legislation

Data protection rules

Advertising standards

Licences and permission


Must or Ought?

• All funds raised for a particular cause _____ be used for that particular cause

• Organisations _____ employ all best efforts to avoid soliciting regular donations, such as Direct Debits, from under ___

• Organisations ____ maintain good data hygiene practices (removing incorrect information from your data) to ensure donor information is accurate, reflects donors’ communication preferences and is retained only for as long as necessary


Must or Ought?

• All funds raised for a particular cause MUST be used for that particular cause

• Organisations OUGHT to employ all best efforts to avoid soliciting regular donations, such as Direct Debits, from under 18s

• Organisations MUST maintain good data hygiene practices (removing incorrect information from your data) to ensure donor information is accurate, reflects donors’ communication preferences and is retained only for as long as necessary

What bothers the public - key findings FRSB Annual Complaints Report 2014Complaints by fundraising type Top 10 Methods

Method Complaints Volume Avg complaint

rate

Clothing Collections

Email

Un-addressed DM

Addressed DM

Telephone

Doorstep F2F

Street F2F

Raffles

Lotteries

Outdoor Events

What bothers the public - key findings FRSB Annual Complaints Report 2014Complaints by fundraising type Top 10 Methods

Method Complaints Volume Avg complaint

rate

Clothing Collections

5,699 82,108,839 0.0002

Email 1,847 209,959,043 0.0003

Un-addressed DM 1,260 242,940,851 0.0000

Addressed DM 16,966 201,400,512 0.0004

Telephone 8,019 14,389,018 0.0011

Doorstep F2F 7,041 44,346,504 0.0007

Street F2F 739 26,036,820 0.0000

Raffles 991 46,521,771 0.0001

Lotteries 880 55,998,520 0.0002

Outdoor Events 1,919 1,561,046 0.0018

Direct marketingPublic collectionsGamingEventsAdvertisingOther


What makes a complaint?

“ Dear Ms. Flusky….”

Just being asked

“Why are you spending money on sending me letters…”

“I asked you not to email me again!”

Upset by the pictures you’ve used

Poor behaviour of fundraisers


Complaints vs bad practice

• Vast majority of complaints resolved by the charity in the first instance

• Out of 48,432 complaints, 18 required formal intervention from FRSB – top two topics were ‘fundraising behaviour’ and ‘lack of transparency’

• Where appropriate, FRSB make a formal adjudication and make recommendations to the IoF: e.g, vulnerable people and door to door fundraising practice


For charities to think about…

• Are we members of the regulators?

• Are we satisfied that our fundraising teams know the standards and rules that they should be following?

• If we receive a complaint do we have a process to resolve it?

• How can we monitor what we’re doing (and our partners) to make sure that we’re fundraising in the right way?


Common issues and pitfalls


Five common questions1. Can we run a raffle or a lottery?

A raffle is a form of a lottery, and all lotteries are regulated by the Gambling Commission. While you need a licence to run most lotteries, some are exempt – for example, an ‘incidental, non-commercial lottery’

• the lottery MUST be incidental to a non-commercial event, where none of the sums raised is to be used for private gain;

• tickets MUST only be sold during the event, on the premises where the event is held

• the draw MUST take place during the event;• the draw MUST not rollover; and Deductions from the profits going to

good causes MUST NOT exceed £100 in costs and £500 in prizes.


Five common questions2. Commercial Participator agreements

Commercial participator = any person who carries on a business and in the course of the business represents that it will make donations to a charity

MUST have a written agreement with the organisation it is raising money for, including:

• Which charities will benefit and in which proportions• What proportion of the price of the goods will be given to the

charity• Any amount the commercial participator will be paid


Five common questions3. Data protection and Direct Marketing

a) If sensitive data is being processed, explicit consent MUST be obtained.

b) If a donor or contact informs an organisation that they do not wish to be subject to direct marketing, then the organisation MUST comply with that request

c) Organisations MUST provide a valid address for opt-out requests.


Five common questions4. Returning/refusing donations

1.7 a “Fundraising organisations which are charities MUST not return donations unless certain criteria are fulfilled.

Failed appealCooling off period (£100+ by credit/debit card and in response to advertisement on TV/Radio)Moral obligation

Nb check Charity Commission Guidance

Refusing a donation: what’s in the best interest of the charity (damage their cause/reputation; large sums of money;) – can ‘delay acceptance’ to make it tax effective


Five common questions5. Volunteer fundraisers

‘In aid’ or ‘on behalf of’?

1) On behalf of: If a volunteer is ‘on behalf of’, they will have been appointed by the organisation to act on its behalf and the organisation will be responsible for his or her act

2) In aid of: A volunteer acting 'in aid of' an organisation is raising funds but acting independently of the organisation. An organisation will often not know about the volunteer’s acts.

‘On behalf of’ – charity has duties and responsibilities‘in aid of – charity OUGHT to make it clear that will not accept any responsibility or liability for these events.


What does it mean to be ethical?

• Campaigning

• Investing

• Beneficiary Involvement

• Employment (minimum wage, zero hours contracts, CEO salaries)

• Spending money ‘properly’

• …and raising money ‘in the right way’


Fundraising ‘in the right way’

• OUGHT to have a complaints procedure

• OUGHT NOT to denigrate other individuals or organisations

• OUGHT NOT to exaggerate facts relating to the beneficiary

• Particular care OUGHT to be taken to avoid causing offence (age/religion/sex/sexual orientation/disability)

• OUGHT to be able to justify the use of potentially shocking images, and give warnings of such material


Who can tell you what’s right or wrong?

• Question of judgment: not a straightforward yes or no!

• Trustee duties: what’s in the best interest of the charity?

• Can you justify your decisions?

• And can you show that they’ve been made in the right way?

• Have you got the right policies in place? (e.g. donation refusal and acceptance)

• Do you know what the legal requirements are and follow best practice


More information

• Introductory videos http://www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk/guidance/five-minute-fundraiser/

• Code of Practice http://www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk/guidance/code-of-fundraising-practice/

Contact us: [email protected]

http://www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk/guidance/five-minute-fundraiser/






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