The Public Fundraising Regulatory Association board will consider a motion to provide more advice and information about face-to-face complaints to members following a suggestion at its annual general meeting.

Some attendees at yesterday's AGM said that the significant year-on-year variation in complaints levels recorded by the Fundraising Standards Board indicated that there may be inconsistent definitions of what constitutes a complaint among charities themselves, and suggested that the PFRA could collate and provide a comprehensive break down of complaints borne out of face-to-face fundraising contacts.

A suggestion by David Johnson, from World Vision, that the PFRA might provide members with statistics or a possible forum on complaints was taken by PFRA acting chair Michael Naidu as a motion to be discussed at the next board meeting of the regulatory body.

PFRA chief executive Mick Aldridge (pictured) said that he did not want the face-to-face community to feel that there were “dark skeletons in the closet about complaints figures” and that it would be best for the PFRA and charities to “nip it in the bud”.

“Any complaint is unacceptable,” said Aldridge but added that charities will always have to deal with complaints about fundraising.

Aldridge will meet with FRSB chief executive Alistair McLean later this week in a meeting which had been planned prior to yesterday’s AGM. At present, the FRSB is the only organisation charged with the responsibility to report and monitor complaints numbers for all fundraising techniques.