The head of fundraising compliance at Oxfam has said that the organisation “learnt very painfully” that charities can no longer afford to have “an arms-length relationship” with agencies.
Speaking at the Institute of Fundraising’s face-to-face conference in London yesterday, James Terry, head of fundraising compliance at Oxfam, said that charities needed to have a much closer relationship with their agencies and suppliers and that this had “changed the nature and balance” of the work fundraisers must do.
“One of the other lessons we’ve learnt very painfully over the last two years is that you really can’t afford to have an arms-length relationship with your agencies and that’s changed the nature and balance of work that our fundraisers are doing to quite a significant extent. It might feel as though they’re doing less actual fundraising and more relationship management.
“There was an initial concern that this might have an impact on results but to the contrary we’ve found that, as a result of those deepening relationships that we’ve actually got a better understanding of how to work together, we’ve got improved processes and, in some cases, improved campaign performance as well.”
Terry also said that the last two years have made clear that ensuring agencies and suppliers are compliant with fundraising law clearly “can’t be an afterthought anymore”.
“Compliance clearly can’t be an afterthought anymore. It needs to be built in, even before the procurement process and you must be making sure that all of the due diligence is carried out to ensure that you’re managing whatever risks you see to your brand as a consequence.”
If you can’t defend your agency in a crisis, should you be working with them?
Also speaking with Terry as part of a panel on compliance and monitoring at the conference yesterday, Richard McStraw, training and compliance manager at the British Heart Foundation said that if a campaign manager didn’t feel comfortable defending the actions of their agency or supplier in the event of a scandal, then they probably shouldn’t sign a contract with them in the first place.
McStraw said: “When looking at a range of suppliers, who have you got in the room? Is it your procurement manager and your campaign manager? Why not get your compliance manager in there, the person who’s doing the training?
"You’re the one who’s going to have to be working closely with these people for the foreseeable future – are you going to be happy to have a relationship with them longer term? That’s the question you need to be able to answer and justify.
“If you can’t work with someone and defend them – if in other words you’ve got a supplier that you don’t get on with - could you put your hand on your heart and say you’re happy to continue working with them, even if they end up on the front page of a newspaper?”
He also said that charities must consider how agencies and suppliers pay their staff, before they sign a contract with them.
In Fundraising Magazine
“When we talk about payment structures there’s a key distinction between agencies who pay commission, day rates, wages, which payment structure are you happy to defend? If you’re happy with an agency which is commissioned based, that’s fine. Go with that, but you need to be able to justify that to your trustees, to your directors, to yourself and to your supporters at the end of the day.
“If you don’t feel comfortable with the way they pay their staff, perhaps they’re not the agency or supplier to work with.”
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