The Institute of Fundraising’s new rule ensuring that fundraisers no longer ignore ‘No Cold Calling’ signs could cost the sector up to £4.3m in donations each year, according to research from the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association.
The research, originally commissioned by the PFRA during the Institute of Fundraising’s review on the issue, shows that it could cost the sector between £3.4m and £4.3m in income a year.
A PFRA spokesman also said it may also result in the loss of over 30,000 individual donors a year.
The PFRA conducted its research from a sample size of around 7,000 people who had all signed up for regular, door-to-door giving. This research showed that 5.2 per cent of those surveyed were displaying ‘No Cold Calling’ stickers.
The 5.2 per cent figure was then “extrapolated to the entire door-to-door sector” by the PFRA, to reach the conclusion that: “of more than 680,000 [donors] in 2014/15, 35,777 donors would not have been recruited if a ban on no-cold-calling stickers had been in place”.
The £4.3m was arrived at using the per donation estimates of: “an estimated low of £96 and an estimated high of £120”.
The IoF announced that it was introducing a new rule into its Fundraising Code of Practices earlier this week. The new rule will become mandatory for all active fundraising charities from September 1, although the IoF are hoping larger charities will “implement it as quickly as possible”.
