Charities’ membership or non-membership of the Fundraising Standards Board could be included on the charity register from 2014, alongside details of any public fundraising arrangements, following proposals put to the charity sector for consultation by the Charity Commission today.

The move is one of 11 questions the regulator is posing to the sector, informed by Lord Hodgson’s review of charity regulation and an earlier consultation on public trust and confidence in the sector.

The Commission says in its consultation document: “We are proposing to show on a charity’s register page whether or not a charity is committed to self-regulation through the FRSB. We believe this will be of interest and assurance to the public and it will also be useful information for us as a regulator. FRSB will share their membership details with us so that we can display this information on the register.”

Several of the questions in the consultation relate to building public trust in charities’ fundraising activities, including potential declarations in charities’ annual returns of whether they raise public funds and if they work with ‘commercial participators’.

“Charities raise funds in a number of different ways, either by themselves or with the help of other people or organisations. Some charities will use professional fundraisers or will work with commercial participators in order to help them raise funds,” says the Commission.

“Our research into public trust and confidence has shown that the public is interested in how charities use money donated to them, including how much they spend on raising funds,” it adds.

But the consultation stops short of asking whether to include details of how much the charity spends with commercial participators in annual returns. Instead the focus is on ensuring the charity has an agreement in place with these participators, which is a legal requirement.

Trustee payments

Charities could also be required to declare in annual returns if they pay one or more of their board members to undertake their trustee duties.

The Commission says it is “often asked” how many trustees are paid, and advises that including this information in the annual return would allow the regulator to provide accurate data on the matter, make decisions on whether to authorise such payments and identify charities which have made unauthorised payments.

Charities with an annual income over £250,000 are already required to disclose these types of payments in their accounts. The subject of trustee payment has been one of contention, with proponents saying it would increase diversity on boards and opponents claiming the opposite is true. The government recently rejected proposals to make it easier for charities to pay trustees, which is currently only possible with prior approval from the Charity Commission.

Other proposed declarations include whether a charity has a trading subsidiary, is predominantly a grantmaker and whether the charity is responsible to any other regulators.

The Commission also moots abolishing the Summary Information Return, as was recommended by Lord Hodgson.

The closing date for the consultation is 17 July and the Commission hopes to implement changes to the annual return nextyear. The full consultation can be accessed by clicking here.

 

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