Lord Hodgson has suggested charities should lose their charity status as an ultimate sanction for persistently breaching fundraising regulations.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 live on Sunday on a programme about “aggressive” fundraising, the Conservative peer, who carried out a review of the Charities Act 2006, said fining charities that break fundraising rules would not be appropriate because it would take away money people had already donated.
“Publicity is the first and best weapon,” he said. “No charity wants to be in the frame for having behaved badly.
"I think there is a case for persistent bad behaviour for considering their charitable status and whether it is appropriate for the charity to continue to operate under charity law.”
But Lord Hodgson also defended the practice of telephone fundraising on the show: "Charities raise money by asking , if they didn’t ask neither you or I or your listeners will take our their credit card. They do have to ask!"
Alistair McLean, chief executive of the Fundraising Standards Board, who also appeared on the programme, told civilsociety.co.uk that Lord Hodgson’s proposal about charities losing their charity status was a matter for the government and the Charity Commission.
“What he suggests goes way beyond the remit of self-regulation,” he said. “Self regulation has got a number of sanctions that can have a big impact.
"Negative publicity and the possibility of public disclosure can have a very significant impact on a charity’s ability to fundraise.”
The FRSB can launch an investigation into charities that breach the Institute of Fundraising’s (IoF) Code of Fundraising Practice, audit charities’ fundraising activities and for serious breaches to the code and charity law it passes concerns on to the police and trading standards, he said.
Adrian Goldberg, who presented the show, asked Daniel Fluskey, head of policy at the IoF, whether the Institute’s code needed to be tougher.
He said the programme had received more texts and emails from listeners about fundraising than it had for any other topic.
Fluskey said: “Our guidelines are continually reviewed to ensure we continue to get the right balance. The impact of sanctions or tighter regulations would mean less money going to good causes.”
Research published today by the consultancy nfpSynergy found that 51 per cent of people find telephone fundraising “very annoying”.
The survey of 1,000 people showed 54 per cent of respondents also found doorstep fundraising “very annoying”.
