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FRSB rejects rumours of financial crisis

Fundraising | Becky Slack | 12 Aug 2008

The Fundraising Standards Board and the Institute of Fundraising’s PR machines have gone into full throttle to attempt to quash rumours that the self-regulatory body is in financial difficulty and is considering hiking up its fees.

A joint statement has been issued to try and diffuse the impact of whisperings at last week’s National Convention that the FRSB has not signed up enough members at current fee rates to enable it to become self-sufficient.

The rumour-mill was fuelled further in the closing plenary by Alan Clayton, managing director of Cascaid, when he implied the Institute had demanded a crisis meeting with the FRSB’s chief executive Jon Scourse. Clayton intimated the Institute wanted to discuss complaints from its members that the self-regulatory body was feeding the media stories about fundraising that were unduly negative.

'Categorical denial' of funding crisis

The joint statement from Colin Lloyd, chair of the FRSB and Paul Amadi, chair of the Institute, said: “In response to accusations that the Fundraising Standards Board is facing financial crisis, we categorically deny that this is the case. Funding is in place for the next financial year and beyond. The financial sustainability of the FRSB is not in question. From a standing start 18 months ago, self-regulation has been highly successfully and the government and Scottish government are pleased with progress.”

However, when pressed further, the Institute confirmed it had received complaints from members, though it rejected the notion that a crisis meeting had been called.

“A number of members of the Institute have raised their unhappiness that the FRSB is producing negative coverage about charities to justify its own existence,” Amadi told Charity News Alert.

“This discontent has been passed onto the chief executive of the Institute who has in turn, as a member of the FRSB board, taken this up with his fellow board members for their consideration and action.”

Findings 'not always comfortable for the sector'

The self-regulatory body defended itself against the criticism, saying: “We reject completely that the FRSB is producing negative coverage to justify our existence. Part of the remit of the FRSB is to reflect any concerns that might impact on public trust and confidence in fundraising. We appreciate that in some instances, such as the research we completed into attitudes to direct mail, the findings are not always comfortable for the sector.”

Further work to establish public sector opinion is scheduled, including mystery shopping exercises.

The FRSB has said that in order to improve its long-term sustainability, it is considering a range of options for future development. These include working with sector organisations to stimulate membership and the possibility of broadening its remit to consider complaints about non-member organisations, something it has described as “a growing feature of our work”.

Fees to be reviewed

Fees are also to be reviewed, and could be hiked up to help generate more income. “We are reviewing fees, which have remained the same since October 2006,” said a spokesperson for the organisation. “This may result in no change for some members and an increase for others. Should there be any changes in membership fees, our members will be informed before they are announced publicly.”

Since 2006, nearly 900 charities representing 35 per cent of all money donated to charity by the public have signed up to the FRSB. Government funding of the scheme will continue through to the end of its 2009/2010 financial year.

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