The Institute of Fundraising and the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association have today announced a “strategic partnership” to provide leadership on fundraising issues and bring joint services to their members.

Following a PriceWaterhouse Coopers report in 2014, the IoF and the PFRA began to work more closely together. Peter Lewis, the chief executive of the IoF has already joined the board of the PFRA, while the PFRA now have a voting member on the IoF board.

The IoF and PFRA strategic partnership will focus on three key areas of fundraising: policy research, communication and compliance to the Code of Fundraising Practice. To achieve this, the IoF and the PFRA will pool their collective resources and deliver joint projects.

Alongside these three main areas, the two organisations will also collaborate on fundraiser training – delivering a two year program whereby the IoF will deliver support to PFRA members who are in need of it.  

The two organisations will also jointly fund research and development into four areas:

• Internal benchmarking on the performance of charity fundraising
• Comparison studies of charity fundraising against other sectors.
• Annual ‘State of the Sector’ review (to include size of sector, number of fundraisers, health of sector etc).
• Best practice guides on key issues facing the sector.

The strategic partnership will run for two years from July 2015 to July 2017.

Peter Hills-Jones (pictured), chief executive of the PFRA said:

“One of my main priorities since taking over at the PFRA has been delivering better value for money to our members. This agreement helps us achieve that goal, while also providing a foundation for new and important projects. Our agreement with the IoF should signal to everyone in the sector, and beyond, that the PFRA is confident and ambitious in what it can achieve.”

Peter Lewis, chief executive of the IoF said:

“I am confident that we can apply the experience gathered by the PFRA on street and door-to-door compliance and apply these lessons to other forms of fundraising. It is yet another sign of the importance of self-regulation and how quickly we can respond to new developments.”

Oversight and development

According to the document, in order to “make the agreement work effectively”, the chairs and chief executives will meet at least twice a year. Both Lewis and Hills-Jones will also meet on a “rolling basis” to identify new areas of collaboration and review the partnership itself.

The management teams of both organisations, will also meet in June/July 2016 to conduct a “full mid-agreement review”.  

The strategic partnership may also be extended beyond its current July 2017 end date, should both organisations agree upon it.

Break down of ‘lead responsibilities’

IoF will take a lead role in relation to the following areas:

• Code development and standards setting via the Standards Committee.
• Creating coalitions with other policy and regulatory bodies in the wider voluntary sector and pursuing a common overall agenda.
• Policy in relation to charity fundraising law, regulation and the implementation of the Charities Act.
• Primary engagement with Office for Civil Society and other relevant government departments and teams.
• Providing a leadership role on all policies in relation to charitable giving and fundraising.
• Recruitment and retention issues for fundraising.
• Providing a national voice for fundraisers.
• Capacity building within fundraising.

PFRA will take a lead role in relation to the following areas:

• Local authority and BID (business improvement district) engagement/negotiation.
• Developing partnerships with community safety stakeholders (police, Trading Standards, and Neighbourhood Watch etc.)
• Providing a voice for professional fundraising organisations or PFOs (both in-house and supplier) within the charity sector.
• Developing best practice for PFOs.
• Representing PFOs in discussions and negotiations with local stakeholders.
• Creating compliance and allocation tools for PFOs to ensure fundraising is carried out in a proportionate and sustainable way.

The FRSB, which was also included in the PwC report, was not involved in discussions about the partnership.