The three fundraising self-regulatory bodies should come together to form a single 'Charity Fundraising Association', Lord Hodgson has said ahead of the findings of a review into self-regulation.
The Conservative peer, who carried out a review of the Charities Act 2006, told civilsociety.co.uk that the three bodies - the Institute of Fundraising, the Fundraising Standards Board and the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association - were making progress on his recommendations for greater clarity in fundraising self-regulation, but needed to go further to make their roles clearer to the public.
He said from the public’s point of view there did not need to be three separate bodies and they should bring their functions together under a single organisation so that people knew where to go with any concerns about fundraising.
Hodgson’s review, published in July 2012, recommended the sector bodies, assisted by the Cabinet Office and the Charity Commission, address the “confused self-regulatory landscape” and agree of responsibilities that provided clarity and removed duplication. He called for a sector-funded, public-facing, central self-regulatory body covering all aspects of fundraising.
Since then the FRSB, Institute and PFRA have moved to outline their distinctive roles and have signed bilateral memoranda of understanding in defining their respective responsibility.
Hodgson, however, said he still felt there was considerable confusion.
“My point remains that the charitable fundraising bodies, of which there are quite a lot, need to arrange a clear and coherent structure whereby the public understands this is where they go with their complaint, where they can actually get in touch and get it dealt with,” he said yesterday.
“There is still not that clarity, although it is getting clearer and they are making progress.
“From a public point of view there does not need to be three separate bodies. They should create a Charity Fundraising Association, which has those bodies within it operating as one.”
Last August, the IoF, the FRSB and the PFRA jointly commissioned the professional services firm PWC to carry out a review of fundraising regulation.
The chief executives and chairs of the three bodies are considering PwC’s initial findings and are due to report back this summer. The review was tasked with creating a sustainable self-regulatory system and was funded by a £20,000 grant from the Office for Civil Society, with a further £40,000 for implementing its recommendations. PwC was asked to look at what efficiencies could be achieved across the bodies, including sharing back offices and looking at membership.
In response to one of Hodgson’s recommendations in the 2012 review, which was supported by the Public Administration Select Committee’s report on charity regulation, the government said it will review the self-regulatory system in 2017, with statutory regulation remaining a serious option if the sector fails to make progress.
Breaches of Code of Practice should result in fundraising bans
Hodgson also said there should be tougher sanctions for charities that break the IoF’s Code of Fundraising practice.
One of the terms of membership of the FRSB should be that if fundraisers breach the code, the charity can no longer fundraise in that way, he said.
He restated his proposal that the ultimate sanction for breaking fundraising rules should be the removal of charity status by the Charity Commission.
Hodgson said the sanction would be a “big stick” that would only need to be waved rather than used.
A spokeswoman for the Commission said: “The Commission’s powers to protect charities against mismanagement can be helpful where it is clear that trustees are putting their charities at risk.
“Removing charities is not a remedy we can use in these situations – that power is only available where an organisation winds up or is found retrospectively not to have ever been a charity.
“We urge people to report concerns about aggressive fundraising to the charity in the first instance and to the FRSB if the charity doesn’t respond satisfactorily.”
The PFRA did not wish to comment on Hodgson’s comments.
Alistair McLean, chief executive of the FRSB, said: "We are now working more closely together with the IoF and PFRA and, having publicly re-defined our respective roles in relation to self-regulation, there is greater clarity around each organisation's work."
The Institute said it wanted to wait for the full report by PwC to be published before commenting.
