The telephone fundraising sector has repeatedly called for clarity on issues surrounding TPS. Now we have it, Hugh Radojev writes, some fundraisers may feel they could have been more careful what they wished for.
There’s something faintly Biblical about what happened to the telephone fundraising community this week. After what can only be described as a summer of discontent for fundraisers everywhere, August 18 will surely live long in the mind of telephone fundraisers everywhere as the nadir. The point when the collective really hit rock-bottom.
Since early May, Peter Lewis and the Institute of Fundraising have effectively been leading fundraisers everywhere through a metaphorical desert of rabid tabloid attacks and mounting public condemnation. Having led his people, more or less safely, to the telephone fundraising summit, Lewis called upon a higher power for guidance and, above all, for clarity.
Much like Moses, Lewis too returned from the summit bearing commandments. While there weren’t ten of them, the ICO’s rules have proven to be no less binding:
- Thou shalt not forget to check the TPS before making marketing calls.
- Thou shalt not call any person or number registered to the said TPS.
- Thou shalt not hide telemarketing calls to TPS registered persons under the wicked guise of “administrative calls”.
Metaphors aside, the ICO’s tough interpretation of the Telephone Preference Service in regards to charities has dealt a serious blow to the telephone fundraising industry. No one will feel this blow more heavily than the fundraising agency callers themselves.
Yet, at the same time, this is what the sector has been clamouring out for: clarity. The IoF called for it. So too did the FRSB. Fundraising agency directors, both current and former, have as well.
This is clarity made tangible. A previously opaque issue rendered crystal clear and translucent as a freshly glazed pane of glass: No, you can’t call up to three quarters of the British population, even if they’re existing donors. No, you can’t contact existing donors to see if they wish to continue being contacted. No, you can’t explain to existing donors how the new rules will affect them because that itself is against the rules.
Is that clear enough for everyone?
The Institute of Fundraising may be disappointed, but it will survive. The vast majority of charities who utilise telephone fundraising will learn to adapt to the rules and, after a period of time, those organisations’ incomes will recover.
It’s the people at the coal face who will suffer the most from this. Exactly what is going to happen to telephone fundraising call-centres around the UK in the future is hard to say, but it’s highly likely that more than a few people will be let go.
