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FRSB to be fundraising regulation’s public face

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 7 Sep 2012

The Institute of Fundraising, PFRA and Fundraising Standards Board have agreed that the FRSB will be put forward as the official public face for fundraising complaints following a challenge set forth by Lord Hodgson to simplify the system.

The chief executives and chairs of the fundraising umbrella body troika met yesterday in the first of a series of gatherings to discuss how to respond to Lord Hodgson’s challenge, in his Charities Act Review, to remove confusion from the present system.

Following the meeting about their respective roles in regulating fundraising, the three organisations released a statement.

“There was unanimous agreement that the FRSB should be the single public-facing regulatory body and point of contact for the public with regard to complaints relating to any kind of fundraising. The Institute will be the standards-setter and writer of rules and codes for all fundraising, against which the FRSB will adjudicate,” they said.

“The PFRA continues to play a specialist role focused on distribution and enforcement of face-to-face fundraising.”

Relations between the three organisations have not always been characterised by cooperation, but the leaders of the three organisations said they are now “united in their determination to work co-operatively to meet the challenges thrown down to the sector”.

FRSB chair Colin Lloyd welcomed the agreement.

"When things go wrong, the public needs to have one clear point of contact for complaints and we are delighted to now have complete agreement that the FRSB will perform this role," he said. "We will continue to work closely with the PFRA when handling concerns about face-to-face fundraising and to channel donor feedback to the IOF to ensure that it is reflected within future code development."

In his review, Hodgson called for the creation of a “simple, donor-focused self-regulatory scheme with a single point of entry for the public”.

“To date the sector has tended to dance around these issues; I believe strongly that it is now time to tackle them head-on,” Hodgson said. “All sides will need to work together much better and make concessions if self-regulation is to succeed.”

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