Fundraising think tank Rogare has today called for the creation of a fourth independent fundraising body, based on the Committee of Advertising Practice, to “devise and own” the Code of Fundraising Practice.
In a blog, Adrian Sargeant (pictured), director of the Centre for Sustainable Philanthropy at the University of Plymouth, said the Institute of Fundraising’s decision to allow lay members to sit on its standards committee was “mere tinkering” and called for the creation of a new body: the Committee for Fundraising Practice.
“I (obviously) have no difficulty with our profession being held to account by the public we serve, but the vehicle for doing that is the FRSB and not our professional standards committee,” he said.
“This is a once-in-a-decade opportunity to get the regulation of fundraising right and install a regime that actually has some bite. We need: A Committee of Fundraising Practice – populated by knowledgeable individuals who can set and maintain the code”.
Sargeant also said that the Fundraising Standards Board should receive extra funding from a “small Gift Aid levy” and should oversee the CFP in much the same way that the Advertising Standards Authority oversees the CAP in the advertising world.
“We also need: A properly-funded and independent FRSB to adjudicate against that code – which pulls into its remit all professional fundraising practice," he said. "To do this it should be funded by a small cut of Gift Aid in the same way as the ASA is funded by 0.1 per cent of all advertising revenues.
“In this way all fundraising charities would be included in the scheme and the FRSB would have enough of a budget to conduct its own monitoring operations just as the ASA currently do in the field of advertising. The ASA compliance surveys typically identify that around 97 per cent of all advertising is compliant with the industry code”.
Both Sargeant, and Ian MacQuillin, director of Rogare, used blog posts on the CSP’s website to criticise the Institute of Fundraising’s response to the FRSB’s interim report.
MacQuillin said that having more lay members than professional fundraisers on the standards committee, “implies that fundraises can’t be trusted”.
“At a time when the fundraising profession is supposedly trying to rebuild public trust,” MacQuillin writes, “this sends a message that the only way so-called ‘professionals’ in fundraising can be trusted is if they have lay people (those against whom fundraisers ‘conspire’?) looking over their shoulders to make sure they behave themselves”.
MacQuillin also said that the new look standards committee “threatens trust in the independence of the FRSB”, as Alistair McLean, chief executive of the FRSB, is now a voting member.
“Would the public be able to completely trust the FRSB to investigate a breach of a standard that it had been instrumental in setting, especially if the standard was found to be wanting in some way?”
Rogare said in a statement that Sargeant will be writing to the minister for civil society to “outline these ideas”. The think tank will also be publishing a white paper “later this summer” outlining the proposal in “greater detail”.
