Serious public concern about fundraising has created a "crisis" which risks damaging confidence in all charities, William Shawcross, chair of the Charity Commission, said yesterday.

Shawcross (pictured) said that the Charity Commission is conducting its own review of its guidance on fundraising, which will be published later this year. And he said he supported “the suggestion of a wholesale review of the Code of Fundraising Practice”.

Shawcross was speaking in London at the first in the Charity Conversations series, hosted by investment firm Rathbones.

Shawcross also called upon the fundraising sector’s three main bodies to “work closely together in conducting the review" and said they must all "commit to act on its recommendations”.

The media furore that surrounded the death of Olive Cooke meant that the public had “serious concerns about the extent and nature of direct fundraising”, and that this is “damaging public trust and confidence”, not just in fundraisers but in the sector as a whole, he said.

"I believe this is a crisis for the charity sector which is testing the strength and capacity of self-regulation," he said.

On Tuesday the Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB) published its interim report into fundraising sector practices in the wake of the death of Olive Cooke. Within its report, it made eight key recommendations which it said would “strengthen” the existing Code of Fundraising Practice.

The FRSB’s report was presented to the Institute of Fundraising Standards Committee yesterday morning.