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FRSB chair to meet charity call centre over tabloid allegations

Fundraising | Vibeka Mair | 16 Feb 2010

Colin Lloyd, chair of the Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB) is to seek a meeting with Pell & Bales, a call centre popular with UK charities, following allegations in a Sunday tabloid about its telephone fundraising methods.

This week, Pells & Bales, which counts many of the top UK charities as clients, has strongly denied allegations made by Sunday's News of the World that it “preys on the vulnerable for cash”.

A spokesman for the call centre said: “Pell & Bales strongly denies the false allegations that recently appeared in a newspaper article. These allegations are a repetition of those made in a similar newspaper article in September 2009 which, in conjunction with our client, we fully investigated at the time. We do not adopt hard sales tactics and neither do we encourage or manage our fundraising staff to bully or pester people into supporting their chosen charitable organisations.”

Lloyd, who chairs the Telephone Preference Service as well as the FRSB, told Civil Society that he was seeking a meeting with Pales & Bales on the matter.

“While telephone fundraising is an important method of raising donations for many charities, it’s important that they and their suppliers do not make calls that constitute pressure selling, breaking best practice codes and, potentially, the law," Lloyd said.

“We are seeking a meeting with the company concerned, who refute the allegations made by the News of the World, to discuss the issues raised.”

Defended by charity clients

Meanwhile, charities that use Pells & Bales' services leapt to its defence, with Christian Aid saying: “We do not recognise the behaviour exposed by the News of the World as characteristic of the company.”

Christian Aid, along with Breakthrough Breast Cancer, the National Trust, Barnardo's, ActionAid and Oxfam, all told Civil Society they had positive relationships with Pells & Bales, wrote scripts for the company to use and regularly listened to both live calls and recordings to check quality levels.

Oxfam added: “Oxfam is naturally concerned about the News of the World story as it has a negative impact on the charity sector. Oxfam is committed to developing strong and enduring relationships with supporters so it’s critical for us that telemarketing calls are delivered to high standards and engage the supporter.

“The News of the World story is a repeat of a story that ran in The Sun last year. Pell & Bales have given us assurances that their internal review of the original complaint proved unfounded. We will continue to work with Pell & Bales to ensure that calls meet quality standards – and that we build long-lasting relationships with our supporters.”

The Dogs Trust, which no longer works with Pell & Bales but has used its services in the past, also defended it.

A spokeswoman said: "We last worked with them on a project three years ago which involved making calls to our existing supporters. The campaign wasn’t asking for money but it was asking people whether they were happy to gift aid their donations so that we can claim the tax back from the government. The campaign was very successful and did not generate any complaints."

Meanwhile, the Fundraising Standards Board and Institute of Fundraising have arranged a telephone fundraising symposium to be held on 4 March, to debate best practice and legislation around telephone fundraising.

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Directory: Breakthrough Breast Cancer | ActionAid | Christian Aid | Dogs Trust | Fundraising Standards Board | National Trust | Oxfam | Pell & Bales
Who's Who: Colin Lloyd