The Charity Commission will relaunch its CC20 fundraising guidance in response to “events over the summer”, its chief executive Paula Sussex said this morning.
Speaking at NCVO's Trustee Conference today, Sussex said fundraising was currently a “very difficult issue for all charities”.
“Fundraising is a self-regulatory activity but in our part, we are relaunching our fundraising guidance to make it stronger and more impactful as to what exactly trustees’ responsibilities are,” she said.
Sussex said fundraising was experiencing a “time of both austerity and great creativity”. But she said the balance has not been maintained, leading to high-profile exposure of fundraising practices over the summer.
But Sussex said public trust in charities remained “resilient”.
“We have been through these periods before. The public is still absolutely with the charity sector and the sector responds to criticism,” she said. “It says we hear you and here is the fantastic work we are doing.”
A spokeswoman for the Charity Commission confirmed the regulator will consult on updated fundraising guidance “before the end of the year”.
“We regularly review all of our guidance; in this case, we're looking to make sure the guidance is as clear as it can be about trustees' duties and responsibilities in overseeing their charity's fundraising activity,” she said.
Emphasis on the ‘musts’
Sussex said the relationship between the regulator and charity trustees was “tough” one that had “moments of tension”.
“The Commission needs to uphold regulation in a fair, proportionate, transparent and accountable way. The flip side is that we have to accept charities’ independence,” she said. “There is a very fine line to tread here and we are accountable to our decisions.”
“It is incredibly important that we do not overburden the sector with red tape,” she said.
But Sussex said trustee guidance released over the summer was now taking a firmer hand.
Commission guidance includes requirements characterised by the word 'must' and recommendations characterised by the word 'should', Sussex said the guidance leans more towards the 'must'.
“There is a long-running discussion between the musts and shoulds,” she said. “Our flagship guidance, The Essential Trustee, is a tougher bit of guidance that is much more focussed on the musts,” she said.
Accessibility
Sussex said it was “absolutely vital” for charity trustees to be clear on how the Commission comes to regulatory decisions - in particular its risk framework.
“Our risk framework - by which we assess evidence of mismanagement - has to be kept updated and on our website for trustees to understand how we regard charities ad their role in society,” she said.
“One of my goals during my tenure at the Commission is to make us a more digitally accessible regulator. It is now no longer an excuse to say ‘we can’t’. We have to be making our guidance more meaningful and accessible, whether you are on the go, whether you are sitting at home or on a charity premises,” she said.
Sussex said the regulator was also encouraging more reporting of serious incidents.
“This is tremendously tricky,” she said. “Some trustees say, ‘if we are too enthusiastic about reporting serious incidents, will that dent our donor confidence?’. It’s a very find line to tread. But we err on the line of 'share with us'. If the Daily Mail comes knocking, we will say to the journalist, the charity alerted us to this fact.”
