Commission accused of ‘partisan’ social media activity

25 May 2017 News

The director of an international aid charity has asked the Charity Commission to explain why it promoted one particular fundraising appeal earlier this year. 

Leigh Daynes, executive director of Doctors of the World UK, wrote to Paula Sussex, chief executive of the Commission, to raise concerns about a tweet from the regulator’s official account, which linked to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s appeal for East Africa. 

He said that the regulator's social media activity amounted to "partisan" behaviour. 

The Commission has responded to Daynes to say that its activity was in line with its aims to promote safer giving. 

Linking to the DEC

The DEC brings together 13 large aid charities to raise money in times of crisis. They are Together We're Stronger, ActionAid, Age International, British Red Cross, Cafod, Care International, Concern Worldwide, Islamic Relief, Oxfam, Plan International, Save the Children, Tearfund and World Vision. 

Membership of the DEC is reviewed every three years and is limited to 15 organisations which must meet strict governance, financial and programme quality requirments. 

In March the Commission’s Twitter feed urged people to donate to register charities raising money to help those affected by the disaster in East Africa and included the DEC twitter account handle and an image with DEC branding. The tweet also included a link to the Commission's news story on its website and was posted six times.

 

 

 

The news item on the Commission’s website also included a link to the DEC’s appeal page. 

It is not the first time the Commission’s Twitter account has mentioned the DEC, but it is the first time that it used images provided by the DEC. 

The Commission has previously directed people to a DEC appeal, during its appeal for people affected by the Nepal earthquake in 2015. 

It runs regular safer giving campaigns, reminding people to give to registered charities, at times like Christmas or Ramadan, though these do not typically direct people to particular charities.  

Harmful to others 

Daynes asked the Commission to “explain why it is acceptable for the Commission to promote one organisation over another in such an overt, partisan way”. 

He said there are “registered, reputable charities meeting humanitarian need that are not eligible to join the DEC” and that the regulator’s public statements could confuse the public, who may think that organisations not part of the DEC are “not to be trusted”. 

“Indeed, we have had calls from the public to this effect.  Your messages are impeding the response to the urgent crisis in the affected region,” he said.

Daynes called on the Commission to publish a list of “all the organisations the public could consider supporting”. 

Commission response

In response, Jack Rowley, head of external affairs, said the activity Daynes referred to was part of the Commission’s ongoing safer giving work and is part of “ensuring the public can have trust and confidence in charities”. 

He said: “Where funds are misused or misdirected, trust is damaged. As such, the Commission runs a campaign throughout the year to provide tips and advice to help ensure donors can give with confidence. This campaign is often focused around times of increased giving, such as Christmas or Ramadan, or during humanitarian crises where we know the British public are incredibly generous.” 

Rowley said this included DEC appeals because “we know that individuals are more likely to donate and we will ordinarily provide tips and advice during this period”. 

“The press release provides lots of advice on how the public can ensure that their donations reach genuine charities. These are not specific to DEC charities and we do not advise that donations are only made to DEC charities. Further, there is no intention to suggest that other organisations cannot be trusted and we do not consider that our press release gives this impression,” he said. 

He stressed that the press release “does include significantly more detail than the tweet” and said the Commission would continue to consider its messaging in future campaigns. 


 

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