The FRSB is asking its member charities for more detailed information about the number and types of complaints it received about direct mail and telephone fundraising, when they submit their annual complaints return to the regulator this year.

Members were notified of the annual survey by the regulator this week, and told that the additional information was required “because of the high percentage of complaints reported during 2008 which relate to these activities”.

The additional detail will assist the FRSB to “put the volume of complaints reported on into context and provide a clearer picture of the issues that concern the public in this key area of fundraising”, according to membership and compliance manager Kory McLeod.

“If we can get a better steer from you as to what aspects of these activities are yielding complaints, we will be able to address those concerns and issue guidance where appropriate,” the survey stated.

Members are asked to provide numbers of complaints received about various aspects of direct marketing complaints, such as “use of enclosures”, “communication to a deceased individual” and “contacting someone who had, in their opinion, not given consent”.

On telephone fundraising, charities are requested to provide numbers of complaints about aspects such as “tone of call”, “data protection”, and “frequency of communication”.

Last year, just 59 per cent of FRSB members submitted their annual returns to the organisation, despite all promising to do so when signing up. In the previous year only a third participated.

Of the 26,349 complaints that were notified to the FRSB for 2008, 20 required mediation and one, relating to a Unicef campaign insert, required an adjudication – the second in the organisation’s two-year history.

During that year, direct mail accounted for nearly three-quarters of all complaints – more than 19,500 in total. However, this represented just 0.04 per cent of direct mail sent.

“The sheer volume of direct mail communication and the lack of complaints is a wonderful story,” said McLean at the time.

Telemarketing generated the second-highest number of reported complaints during 2008, at 2,772, but again represented less than 1 per cent of call volume.