Battersea Dogs and Cats Home has suspended its door-to-door fundraising in Plymouth after complaints were received that contracted fundraisers had misrepresented themselves to the public.
Fundraising Initiatives Ltd (FIL) was contracted to undertake door-to-door fundraising for Battersea in 2010. It started its Plymouth operations for the charity in January this year. But on 4 May Battersea was contacted by a member of the public advising that a FIL fundraiser had lied about which charity they were raising money for, claiming to be working for local charities Woodside Animal Welfare Trust and Gables Farm Dogs' and Cats' Home.
Battersea then contacted FIL, who issued the fundraiser with a warning, FIL advised, sending an apology to Battersea at that time. But just a few days later a further complaint was received from a member of the public and Battersea requested the suspension of door-to-door fundraising from FIL's Plymouth office.
The complaints were taken "very seriously" said FIL's chief executive, Cathy Sullivan, who told civilsociety.co.uk the organisation dealt with the matter in accordance with Fundraising Standards Board guidelines, introduced in October last year.
"Fundraising Initiatives has a long and productive relationship with Battersea Dogs & Cats Home and we have worked together with them, closely and transparently throughout this matter," she said.
"It was a serious concern to us that some of our fundraisers in the Plymouth area were off message and the individuals involved were issued with warnings and their fundraising approach corrected to ensure best practice was resumed and the issue resolved."
Office closure "unrelated"
The office has subsequently been closed by FIL, but Sullivan said this was "unrelated to the two complaints" and a consequence of poor performance.
"Fundraising Initiatives works across the UK, targeting specific campaign areas region by region. To do this we open short-term office spaces, often a single room, as a base for our fundraising teams during a campaign. This gives us the flexibility we need in our targeting in order to achieve the greatest potential for our clients," she advised.
"If an area is tested and comes up as a ‘non-performing’ location we close that particular office and refocus the campaign’s efforts on alternative higher performing areas. It is in all our interests that we ensure best practice is a priority and adhered to in our campaigns across the hundreds of field fundraisers representing the charity at any given time," she said.
Liz Tait, Battersea's director of fundraising, defended the charity's relationship with FIL saying: "We work collaboratively with Fundraising Initiatives and were pleased that they took the problem so seriously and resolved it quickly, as how our fundraisers represent us is hugely important to us.
"At the time that this arose I personally contacted both Woodside and Gables and they were happy with the action we took," she added.
Fundraising Initiatives works in the UK, Canada, the USA and Spain handling face-to-face, telephone, direct debit and workplace giving. It has worked with over 60 charities worldwide since it launched in the late 1990s. According to its website it has over 400 door-to-door fundraisers working across 30 regional offices in the UK.
