Scottish charities want a separate fundraising regulatory system, according to SCVO, which conducted its own informal review in parallel with Sir Stuart Etherington’s review of fundraising regulation.

The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations also published its report today which highlights the differences between UK-wide organisations and charities which operate solely in Scotland.

The SCVO review agreed with Etherington that self-regulation is the most effective approach and also said the current system should be simplified.

NCVO has called for a single UK regulator.

Martin Sime, chief executive of SCVO, said: “Self-regulation is still the best way to oversee fundraising in Scotland but we need a much simpler approach. Charities and their trustees should take the lead in designing a new system of self-regulation.

“The review has given us a useful overview of the issues around fundraising. Now we want to see charities and other third sector organisations come together to find the answers to these challenges, and to set out a much more rigorous approach to self-regulation which everyone can trust.”

The SCVO report said: “Media coverage and the complaints data suggests the problem is more prevalent in large UK charities than Scottish charities raising funds solely in Scotland.”

It calls for charities rather than fundraisers to be “in control of fundraising self-regulation” and urged trustees to play a greater role. Like the NCVO-led review SCVO said that the FRSB’s sanctions were not strong enough, but recommended strengthening the FRSB so that it could impose fines.

“Scottish charities that operate and fundraise in Scotland were highly likely to believe that a Scottish regulatory body was required,” the report said. “The most pressing reason was the belief that the UK government and Charity Commission will seek to move away from a self-regulatory model that is still supported in Scotland.”

Key recommendations

1. Charities should take ownership of fundraising in Scotland in order to maintain public trust in fundraising, and not delegate this to fundraisers
2. Charities should lead the design of their own fundraising regulation system, with the associated rules, codes, thresholds and sanctions
3. The charity sector in Scotland must decide whether membership of this system should be compulsory for all charities that fundraise
4. Sanctions should be determined by charities, but ultimately enforced by an appropriate regulator
5. A ‘fundraising guarantee’ style document should be developed which specifies how the general public can expect to be treated by fundraisers
6. Further work is required to establish processes and practices which avoid vulnerable people becoming overly-burdened by fundraising requests
7. The Institute of Fundraising must take the lead in changing the culture in fundraising
8. Trustees should take greater strategic control over fundraising
9. Compliance with, and the effectiveness of, the regulatory requirements relating to sub-contracting fundraising should be investigated
10. ‘Whistleblowing’ by fundraisers must be enabled and supported
11. Complaints processes must be redesigned in order to empower the public and trustees
12. New reporting processes are required that deliver greater openness and transparency about the operation of charities

 

---

Take our poll