The PFRA says it could take on an additional remit of facilitating national collection days if Lord Hodgson’s recommendation to abolish National Exemption Orders is accepted by the government.
NEOs exempt charities that carry out regular door-to-door collections of clothing or money from having to apply for separate licences each time. Small local charities have complained that the use of NEOs by large charities is unfair and prevents them from being able to fundraise. In his Charities Act review, Lord Hodgson agreed and recommended that NEOs be scrapped. A number of charities that hold NEOs have objected, arguing that the move would burden them with a huge administrative task.
PFRA’s new chief executive Sally de la Bedoyere told civilsociety.co.uk yesterday that the organisation has not joined in the voices lobbying for NEOs to be retained, because that would not be appropriate. But she added that it could step into the breach to manage allocations on behalf of local authorities if the NEOs are scrapped.
“It’s not our role to lobby for or against NEOs,” she said. “I know a number of charities that have them are concerned about the proposal and while it would make it fairer for small charities, you still need to be able to facilitate national collection days like Christian Aid Week (pictured). But providing that could be a real role for the PFRA if NEOs are abandoned.”
de la Bedoyere said the PFRA already oversees a number of voluntary agreements with charities in London to avoid clashes for doorstep collections “and that is something we could broaden out across the country”.
She admitted it would be a huge task and would require more resources, either in staff or technology or both, “but potentially it could be something of value to the sector”.
She said the PFRA would feed back to the Public Administration Select Committee that although scrapping NEOs would be fairer in principle, it would also add a layer of complexity and management that doesn’t exist at the moment “and that would take money and resource”.
Her comments come just as civilsociety.co.uk has revealed that the Institute of Fundraising is planning to devise an entirely new regime for public collections in response to Lord Hodgson’s review, and that this will include proposals on National Exemption Orders.
Click here to read Tania Mason's interview with Sally de la Bedoyere.