Charity lobbying 'misses mark', poll finds

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 14 Sep 2009

Charities often misdirect their lobbying energies at politicians, a new poll has found.

The Charity Parliamentary Monitor, a survey of MPs and peers by nfpSynergy, has questioned the value of lobbying at party conferences next month, as only 13 per cent of sitting politicians rate the events as effective places to lobby.

The Monitor discovered that a quarter of MPs did not even attend last year’s conferences and of those who did attend, few reported being "impressed’"by the charities they encountered there.

Most MPs (54 per cent) surveyed said that face-to-face meetings in Westminster was the most effective way lobbyists may influence them, however just 16 per cent said this was the most frequent way in which they met with representatives from charities.

Meanwhile, more than three-quarters of MPs told the researchers that their most frequent contact with charities was via correspondence with their Westminster officers, but just 27 per cent of the politicians identified this method of communication as influential to their policies.

After face-to-face meetings at Westminster, both peers and MPs identified constituency correspondence and constituency events as the next most influential ways of lobbying them. Party conferences was second-to-last.

Directory: nfpSynergy
Who's Who: Celina Ribeiro

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