A cancer charity and its agency have breached the Code of Fundraising Practice over the delivery of charity bags to a restricted address, the Fundraising Regulator has said.
Earlier this week, the regulator published the findings of a complaint investigation into Cancer Relief UK and Recycling Solutions North West Limited.
It launched an investigation after an individual complained about receiving charity bags from the company on behalf of the charity, despite having a sign on their letterbox stating “no unsolicited or unaddressed mail” and being on the charity’s “don’t deliver list”.
Cancer Relief UK and Recycling Solutions North West accepted the regulator’s findings and recommendations.
‘Unwanted’ charity bags
The complainant contacted the Fundraising Regulator in January 2020 to say that despite having a sign, and asking Recycling Solutions North West not to send unsolicited or unaddressed mail, they continued to receive “unwanted” charity bags on behalf of Cancer Relief UK.
The regulator contacted the charity, advising it to take “remedial action” to prevent the delivery of the bags to people who do not want to receive them.
The following January, the complainant again got in touch with the regulator, saying that despite many requests they had received six bags.
The regulator contacted the charity, which said the bags had been sent due to a “new and inexperienced distribution team”. It confirmed the complainant's street had been removed from its distribution list.
But in February 2023, the complainant complained again as they had received another bag on behalf of the charity, prompting the regulator to investigate. Another bag was sent to the complainant in October 2023.
Agency breached standards around ‘persistent fundraising’
The regulator considered “the possibility of human errors in the fundraising process, despite the agency’s assurance of having training measures in place”, as well as the agency’s concerns that some of the early bags delivered to the complainant could have been fraudulent.
“However, since January 2020, neither the charity nor the company has disputed whether the bags were delivered by its distributors,” the regulator said.
“Despite these considerations, and even after discounting charity bags that were delivered before January 2020, which could have come from fraudulent distributors, the complainant still received five charity bags.
“The agency doesn’t dispute delivering these bags, even though a sign clearly indicated that the resident didn’t want them, and the address was on the charity’s ‘don’t deliver’ list.
“Based on this, we found Recycling Solutions North West breached the code standards that relate to persistent fundraising and not adhering to signs that indicate the residence's preference not to be fundraised to.”
‘Little evidence of third-party oversight’ by charity
The regulator said that since the charity and its agency did not co-operate when asked to provide a copy of their contract, it has been unable to determine “whether the charity is acting in accordance with the Code of Fundraising Practice and has a contract in place with its agents”.
“We found that aside from what the charity and agency have told us, we have seen little supporting documentary evidence to suggest the charity has comprehensive oversight over the work carried out by the company in its name.
“We have found that the charity has breached the code section related to monitoring its third-party fundraisers and commercial partners and ensuring they adhere to the code.”
The regulator said that although Cancer Relief UK and its agency responded “promptly and politely” when contacted about the complaint, the charity breached the section of the code relating to investigating a complaint thoroughly.
It concluded: “Cancer Relief UK and Recycling Solutions North West have accepted our findings and recommendations. Recycling Solutions North West has also confirmed that because of this complaint, it no longer works with the distribution team in question.”
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