Brexit means it is unlikely that the current government will attempt further reform to fundraising regulation, charity leaders told delegates at the Institute of Fundraising convention yesterday.
Lucy Caldicott, chief executive of UpRising and board member of the Fundraising Regulator, said: “Given the huge dominance of Brexit there won’t be appetitive for further regulation of our sector from government.”
However, she said that fundraisers needed to continue to “absolutely engage in the work that the Fundraising Regulator has been doing. I think the charity sector has moved on hugely since the formation of the Fundraising Regulator and the positive engagement of charities and changes many of you have made in the way you operate is really excellent.”
Caldicott’s thoughts regarding a Brexit dominated government agenda was supported by Peter Kellner, chair of NCVO, who was also on the panel.
He said that whether it lasts for 3 months or 3 years, “the life of this Parliament, while it lasts is going to be a government concerned with Brexit and with domestic tactics. This is not a Parliament in which one can expect any long term, deliberative policy”.
Also speaking on the panel, John Tizard, honorary advisor to the Navca board, said that the new parliament gave the sector some opportunities, but decried the lack of collaboration between charities and umbrella bodies.
“It’s a shame that NCVO and Navca, for example, can’t find more common cause”.
Kellner: ‘Grade is absolutely right’
Kellner also took the opportunity to support the comments made in the Telegraph and on the BBC by Lord Grade, chair of the Fundraising Regulator, earlier today.
Kellner said Grade was “absolutely right” and called on the sector to “draw a line under the controversies” and move on.
“Let me say straight away, and I’m not sure that all NCVO members will welcome me saying this, but I think what Lord Grade said was absolutely right,” he said.
“We as a sector have to be absolutely clean and at the most moral end of its behavior as it can be. It’s kind of disappointing that Lord Grade has to make these kinds of comments at all, because you would think that our sector does all the things that he thinks we should do anyway.”
He also said that the issue should have already been addressed.
“My worry is that this issue should have gone away a year or two ago. We had that terrible period where we had Kids Company, Olive Cooke’s suicide, all the arguments about fundraising databases leading to the fines for a number of charities,” he said.
“Having become chair of NCVO last November, I’d rather hoped that we’d put those issues behind us, so we could move forward with a much more positive agenda.”
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