The Fundraising Standards Board has shaken off sector speculation that it could be vulnerable to government cuts, with chief executive Alistair McLean saying that total self-sufficiency is within reach.

McLean (pictured) told Civil Society that the regulator is now “virtually self-funding”. With no grants from either the Cabinet Office or the Scottish Government in the last financial year, McLean said “we’re just about there” in terms of self-sufficiency.

He said that membership fees have covered the loss of the grants from the two statutory funders, and that the only government funding the FRSB now receives is from the Welsh Assembly Government – which is due to come to an end at the end of 2011.

The Welsh grant has been used to fund a Welsh manager tasked with boosting membership numbers in the region, but McLean added that he was optimistic that Wales too will be funded by membership fees by the time the grant ends.

He insisted however that the FRSB is not complacent about its future funding. “We need to continue to build membership and build awareness of the FRSB,” he said.

Gift aid levy to fund FRSB

Concern about the regulator's financial stability was voiced recently in an article on this website by Professor Adrian Sargeant.

In it, Sargeant proposes that a small levy be added to gift aid which would go to fund the FRSB, similar to the way the Advertising Standards Authority is funded.

McLean liked the proposal. “It’s a great idea,” he said, though he added it is one that has “done the rounds already”.

He said that he would welcome such a levy, which could eliminate any perception that the FRSB is dependent on specific third parties (ie large charity) support.
 
But, McLean was not optimistic that such a proposal would gain a receptive audience in the current government climate. He said that any push to have to funnel an “infinitesimally small percentage of gift aid” to the FRSB would have to be viewed as a long-term project.