The Institute of Fundraising has said the Information Commissioner's office must provide "absolute clarity" about telephone fundraising rules, and the two bodies will work together to produce clearer guidance.

The IoF said it will meet with the Information Commissioner’s Office to feed into a review of its Direct Marketing Guidance in the wake of Friday’s Telephone Fundraising Summit - a meeting including representatives from the ICO, the Direct Marketing Association and the Telephone Preference Service last week.

In a joint statement issued yesterday by the IoF and the FRSB, both organisations said they had arrived at “positive practical outcomes” during the summit.

The IoF will help feed information into the ICO’s review of Direct Marketing Guidance which, in turn, will inform its own task-force currently looking into telephone fundraising as part of its internal review of the Code of Fundraising Practice. For its part, the ICO agreed to use the “summit’s feedback” in its DMG review.

According to the statement there was also a debate at the summit, which “identified common issues” to all the organisations, including: data consent options, warm donor relationships, and contact frequency.

Peter Lewis, chief executive of the Institute of Fundraising (pictured) said, “It is really important that charities are able to contact current supporters. We will be meeting with the ICO to feed into their code review and to get absolute clarity on how charities can use the telephone and the TPS; clarity that will inform our review of the Code”.

On June 9, the FRSB published its interim report into fundraising practices. The report called on the IoF to alter some of its Code of Fundraising Practices to, amongst other things, strengthen compliance with the Telephone Preference Service.

The FRSB’s recommendation regarding the TPS was one of three of the FRSB’s recommendations that were immediately implemented by the IoF.

Alistair McLean, chief executive of the FRSB, said: “Public feeling and recent allegations about telephone fundraising are deeply worrying and it’s clear that charities and agencies alike need greater clarity in the rules they are expected to abide by in operating within the legal requirements of the TPS. 

"It’s encouraging that the IoF will be working with the ICO to identify amendments to the Code going forward”.