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FRSB urges the public to support its members at Christmas

Fundraising | Tania Mason | 2 Dec 2009

The Fundraising Standards Board is urging MPs around the country to encourage their constituents to give to charity this Christmas in a bid to bolster sector coffers depleted by the recession.

The sector’s self-regulatory body has already enlisted the help of charities minister Angela Smith who has agreed to promote the campaign to her constituents and persuade other MPs to do the same.

This public endorsement of the FRSB by the government will come as a relief to chief executive Alistair McLean and his team.  It was known that the government had been frustrated by the FRSB’s apparent inability to win the sector over, but the minister is reportedly happy with the regulator’s developments over the past year, in signing up more charities and handling issues within the sector. A spokesman for the Office of the Third Sector told Civil Society that Smith was “pleased with the progress”.

FRSB member numbers now stand at 1,152 organisations, up by 200 since February but still short of the target announced then of 1,200 members by June.  But McLean said he thought that 200 new members this year was a "fantastic result" and one he was sure would have been even better were it not for the recession.

The Christmas fundraising campaign advising donors they can ‘Give with confidence’ by choosing charities that sport the FRSB ‘tick’ logo, is a PR push only – the regulator does not have the resources for advertising.

A spokeswoman for the FRSB said: “It is primarily an MP and local media campaign, working to get the message out through MPs and providing them with the tools they need to do that.”

Public trusts charities with high fundraising standards

Meanwhile, the latest findings of nfpSynergy’s Charity Awareness Monitor suggest that having high fundraising standards is the best way to make people trust a charity.

Of a sample of 1,000 16+ year olds, 46 per cent said “high fundraising standards” would make them trust a charity, followed by “personal contact” (39 per cent) and a “long-established brand” (38 per cent).

Membership of the FRSB was listed as the fifth most trust-inducing factor, with 30 per cent.

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