Fundraising should become a licensed profession, Mark Astarita, director of fundraising at the British Red Cross, recommended today.

Astarita, who stepped down last year as chair of the Institute of Fundraising, told Civil Society News he made the suggestion reluctantly, but he felt “the moment has come when it is necessary to enhance fundraisers’ reputation”.

He said he was concerned about public attitudes to the sector in the wake of the apparent suicide of Olive Cooke, a 92-year-old woman who the Daily Mail claims has been “hounded to death” by fundraisers.

“The environment is a bit febrile” he said. “Two of my fundraisers have been assaulted in the last four weeks.”

'Would enhance fundraisers’ status'

Astarita wrote on Twitter “I believe it is time we became a licensed profession where every fundraiser, charity or agency would be required to be qualified to practice”.

He said that if fundraisers could take steps which would “enhance their status” then they should do so, even though there could potentially be a cost involved.

He said it would “particularly add value to the many agency fundraisers who are employed in call centres” and it would allow charities to ensure that proper training had been given, and also to strike off fundraisers who persistently breached the Code of Fundraising Practice.

He said he did not anticipate that licensing would be backed by statutory rules, but that if large charities required it of their staff and agencies then it would quickly spread throughout the profession.

Astarita’s comments come shortly before the publication of a Fundraising Standards Board interim report which is likely to call for stricter rules around exchange of donor information and require charities to make it easier to opt out of receiving communications.

The FRSB report was prompted by the death of Olive Cooke, and will be published directly before the second reading of a Charities Bill which some have suggested should contain rules to introduce statutory regulation of fundraisers.

Astarita said fundraisers accepted that some changes to the rules were necessary, but cautioned against overreaction. He said that he was concerned about the potential cost and the danger that less money would reach beneficiaries, and said he did not feel that regulation should apply to fundraisers which did not apply to other bodies.

“If you made life harder for fundraisers it wouldn’t resolve the contextual problem of privacy,” he said. “People would still be hounded over PPI refunds and payday loans.”