The Public Fundraising Regulatory Association’s head of communications, Ian MacQuillin has slammed the sector for seven years of failure to defend face-to-face.

In a heated address through a Guardian podcast on fundraising he slammed journalists for their “ridiculously naïve preconceptions that charities should not spend money on fundraising” and equally blamed charities for not accepting responsibility to “actively and combatively where necessary explain to journalists why charities use face-to-face”.

In response to the BBC Newsnight documentary on 26 August which focused on the costs of face-to-face, MacQuillin (pictured) said: “It took at least three researchers more than a month to come to the same conclusion, that fundraising agencies are paid and what they are paid is about the same as a donor gives to the charity in the first year, as a similar investigation by Radio 4’s MoneyBox programme in 2003.

"The BBC could have saved themselves a decent chunk of the licence fee revenue simply by searching their own website.”

But MacQuillin expressed frustration that in both shows, the sector failed to defend face-to-face, despite the creation of the ImpACT Coalition following the 2003 broadcast.

“Seven years on, nothing’s changed. The media come with the intention of soundly bashing us with the wrong end of the stick and no-one from the charity sector has the gumption to wrestle it from them and hit back,” he said.

“A great opportunity to influence public perception has been squandered,” he added.

MacQuillin pointed to the need for a sector representative to step up and take responsibility for defending face-to-face:

“Organisations such as the PFRA can only do so much in explaining how face-to-face works. Ultimately, it’s up to the charities that use face-to-face to defend it. Somebody in the charity sector has to accept responsibility to actively and combatively where necessary explain to journalists why charities use face-to-face and not be afraid to challenge their ridiculously naïve preconceptions that charities should not spend money on fundraising.”