The Fundraising Standards Board has begun investigating charities with high levels of self-reported fundraising complaints in the first of a two-stage process to strengthen fundraising self-regulation.

The first stage of the auditing programme starts today and will involve the FRSB looking into the cause of complaints for those charities which have high levels of complaints, according to the annual reports they submit to the FRSB.

Chief executive of the FRSB Alistair McLean (pictured) said the new system “will enable the FRSB to deliver a more rigorous regulatory scheme”.

The second phase of the new auditing programme will not begin until January 2015. Over the  next 18 months the complaints regulator will be working with charities and both the Institute of Fundraising and PFRA to devise and test what precisely that second stage should entail. A spokeswoman for the FRSB said that there are a “raft of things on the table” ranging from mystery shopping fundraising to checklists charities themselves may use to ensure their fundraising is up to par.

McLean added: “We are keen that those measures keep any administrative burden to charities to an absolute minimum and that regulation remains proportionate to a sector where standards remain high.”

The compliance testing – in both phases – will test whether fundraising activity adheres to both the Institute’s Code of Fundraising Practice and the FRSB’s own ‘Fundraising Promise’.

The announcement follows the release of the annual fundraising complaints data by the FRSB, which found a marginal increase in both fundraising volume and complaints.