Over half of charities (56%) fully comply with rules on fundraising reporting, an increase from 33% in 2022, new research from the Fundraising Regulator has found.
The Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act 2016 requires charities with annual incomes of more than £1m to include a statement on fundraising in their annual report, giving details on six aspects of their approach to fundraising.
Fundraising statements should detail to which regulatory scheme the charity is bound, how it monitors third parties fundraising on its behalf, how many complaints it receives and how it protects vulnerable people.
The regulator analysed a sample of 202 annual reports from fundraising levy-paying charities, which had spent over £100,000 or more each year on their fundraising activities.
It found overall compliance among levy-paying charities was higher compared with 2022, the last time the regulator conducted an analysis of reports.
Meanwhile, the regulator also published guidance for charities interacting with donors in vulnerable circumstances last week.
Increases in compliance in most areas
The most significant improvement was in reporting on the monitoring of fundraising activities carried out on behalf of the charity, which increased from 40% to 51%.
There were also increases in reporting on fundraising approaches (89%), the number of fundraising complaints received (72%), and the steps taken to protect vulnerable people and other members of the public while fundraising (55%).
The only area where compliance declined was in reporting on participation in voluntary regulations and schemes (74%).
The 2022 research identified two key areas for improvement: how charities monitor third-party fundraising and how they protect people in vulnerable circumstances.
In this year’s sample, both areas showed improvement among levy-paying charities, with monitoring rising from 40% to 51% and safeguarding from 45% to 55%.
Of the 202 levy-paying charities reviewed, none reported on any failure to comply with the scheme, and for 52 charities the requirement of whether the charity monitored activities carried on by any person on behalf of the charity for the purpose of fund-raising was not applicable.
Lower compliance from charities not paying levy
The regulator also analysed the reports of 34 charities which had not paid the voluntary levy, urging caution in how their findings are interpreted due to the smaller sample size.
It found the level of detail provided by non-levy-paying charities was “extremely low” in most categories compared with their levy-paying counterparts, with monitoring having declined while safeguarding increased.
Just over a quarter of these charities included a detailed account of their fundraising approach in their reporting, while one in 10 gave a detailed account of how they learn from and apply voluntary regulation and schemes.
One in 20 charities in this sample provided detailed information about how they monitored fundraising undertaken on their behalf.
Almost half of the non-levy-paying charities did however give a detailed overview of their complaints policies and processes, and nearly one in five included a statement on what the charity had done to protect vulnerable people and other members of the public whilst fundraising.
