Charities should create a national database to help individuals remove themselves from mailing lists, the minister for civil society told the three fundraising regulatory bodies yesterday.
In collective statement the Institute of Fundraising, the Fundraising Standards Board and the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association said they had updated minister Rob Wilson (pictured) on the progress made by the bodies in strengthening the code, including the ruling that charities must not knock on doors that have ‘No Cold Calling’ stickers.
According to the statement, the fundraising self-regulatory bodies have also undertaken work to look at the “feasibility of a national suppression database,” which was requested by Wilson.
The national suppression database would be compiled of members of the public who had opted out of being contacted by fundraisers and would then need to be constantly cross-referenced and updated by charities.
A spokeswoman for the FRSB said that “the concept of a national suppression database will be floated into the work of the IoF’s code reviewing task groups,” to decide whether or not the idea is feasible in the long term.
Wilson had previously requested the database in a letter to the IoF, but reiterated his call yesterday.
Rob Wilson has been quoted by the Daily Mail as being critical of the way the fundraising sector currently self-regulates itself. The minister reportedly said that fundraising practices were currently “indefensible and immoral” and warned that charity must “clean up” their practices.
Peter Lewis, chief executive of the IoF, said: "We explained to the minister that we are reviewing whether fundraisers should be limited to a maximum amount of contacts each year with the donor; the standardisation of opt-outs; data buying; selling and sharing; the rules in relation to complying with TPS and MPS; whether "reasonable persuasion" is the appropriate level of persuasion a charity should be able to use in asking for support for its cause or such a statement should be removed from the code altogether and what tighter rules might be most effective to better manage telephone fundraising.
"However, while some decisions have been necessary to make swiftly, and have been clear ones to make, we also want to ensure that other changes that will impact on charities and their beneficiaries need to be made with deliberation. Speed alone never makes for good long term decisions.
Alistair McLean, chief executive of the FRSB, said: "We are also introducing a supplier complaints return in 2016 so that we can better track the performance of those organisations and tackle any poor practice.
"We have also looked at greater sanctions for non-compliance and have agreed that charities not completing their mandatory annual complaints return for two years in a row will be referred to the Board, with the potential of being expelled from the scheme."
