Money has been returned and six fundraising code breaches have been found after a partially-sighted person with dementia was signed up for regular charity lottery donations.
The Fundraising Regulator found that the door-to-door donation was made in a private retirement residential area where signs made clear that cold calls were not permitted.
It concluded that it was likely the donor’s circumstances “should have made it apparent to the fundraiser that they were potentially vulnerable”.
The fundraising was for British Limbless Ex-Service Men’s Association (Blesma)’s charity lottery, but was carried out through a chain of organisations.
Blesma had an agreement with St Helena’s Hospice (SHH), which contracted a now-dissolved private company called SKW Southeast that employed the fundraiser involved in the code breaches.
Six code breaches were found, namely in relation to sections on “informing donors and treating people fairly”, “general duties”, “contracts and agreements” and “monitoring that fundraisers are meeting the code”.
Charity returns payments
In April 2024, a complaint was made from someone who said their parent had dementia, was partially sighted and had no clear recollection of the visit. They also said the donor’s contact details had been recorded incorrectly.
SHH, which handled the complaint, agreed that the donor’s home was in an area with “no cold calling” signs and apologised, returned the payments and wrote on the charity’s behalf to every donor recruited in the same residential area to explain the error and offer them the chance to cancel.
Kate Heslegrave, co-chief executive at SHH, said: “We are deeply sorry that this incident occurred and apologise to the resident and their family for any distress caused.
“The family affected has been contacted with our sincere apologies and all payments have been refunded. We also undertook a review of other lottery players recruited by the canvasser in the same area and took appropriate follow-up action.
She added that SHH was disappointed the fundraiser who was involved in the code breaches “failed to apply the standards expected of them despite extensive training”.
The regulator said it was satisfied that SHH’s response had been “comprehensive, and sufficient to remedy these breaches”.
However, it said that Blesma must take overall responsibility for its fundraising applied to agreements with other organisations, having breached technical standards relating to contracts and monitoring.
The regulator recommended that Blesma specifically must review its contracts with professional fundraisers with whom it works, including any subcontracted organisations, and consider its procedures for monitoring fundraising carried out by SHH and any other professional fundraisers.
Blesma has been approached for comment.
