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Direct mail tops donors' complaints to charities

Fundraising | Gemma Ware | 21 May 2008

Complaints about direct mail made up a third of all complaints received by members of the Fundraising Standards Board in the last year.

In its first ever annual report, published this month, the self-regulatory scheme calculated that of the 8,434 complaints reported by scheme members, 31 per cent concerned direct mail. All members of the FRSB are required to submit an annual return reporting the number and nature of complaints they have received over the last year.

Data protection issues aroused the second most consternation with the public, accounting for 21.7 per cent of complaints, closely followed by telephone fundraising with 21.1 per cent of complaints.

The FRSB only dealt with four escalated ‘stage two’ complaints between February 2007 and February 2008. Two of these related to direct mail, one to legacy and one to telephone fundraising, but only one – a complaint about the frequency of pen packs sent out by CancerResearch UK – went before the full adjudication board, which cleared the charity of any wrongdoing.

Jon Scourse, the scheme’s chief executive, said he was happy with the number of complaints that it had to deal with.

“In the first year, every scheme of this type has to start somewhere. And our primary purpose is to drive up standards. I don’t think we should be measured by the volume of complaints we handle. I think the good news is the vast majority of the complaints are handled by the charities themselves.”

Other issues that arose during the year included confusion over what constituted a warm donor in relation to the telephone preference service; the FRSB is seeking clarification from the Institute of Fundraising and Information Commissioner on the issue.

It has also looked into the accuracy of statistical claims made in fundraising appeals, but said that in most cases the wording could be justified.

The FRSB now has 826 members, representing 33 per cent of all voluntary giving in the UK, and an annual turnover in its first financial year to June 2007 of £1.5m.

But Scourse said it needed “thousands of members not hundreds of members” if it was to remain secure in its self-funding and said it was currently setting a target for how many it needed to recruit this year.

Suppliers have been particularly slow to join the scheme, with only 36 signed up so far. A recruitment drive for suppliers scheduled for late April had to be cancelled because of a lack of interest.

Charities minister Phil Hope said the first annual review showed good progress from those charities who had signed up.

 “The FRSB’s first year gives it a good platform to take self-regulation forward, and we are confident it has the potential to succeed. However, many more organisations will need to join in the coming year to convince us that the sector has the will to fully embrace self-regulation and make it work. The alternative, as set out in the Charities Act, would be statutory regulation.”

• Read the full interview with Phil Hope to find out where charitable giving sits on the government’s agenda.

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