Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of NCVO, has criticised charities for not paying the Fundraising Regulator’s levy, in a speech today.
In the speech, delivered at the Association of NHS Charities Member’s Forum in London today, Etherington said that collecting the levy was "presenting some challenges" for the Fundraising Regulator.
“Paying the levy is not simply a financial transaction,” Etherington said. “It demonstrates your commitment to fundraising responsibly and your support for the wider cultural change that we are seeing in fundraising”.
He said that, in order to be successful, fundraising self-regulation “needs the whole fundraising sector to take responsibility and demonstrate its commitment” to making the system work.
Etherington led the review into fundraising self-regulation, which led to the creation of the new Fundraising Regulator in summer 2016.
While certain aspects of the regulator envisaged by the review were changed by the time it launched, the Fundraising Regulator published its final tiered levy system in August 2016 which kept the £100,000 minimum figure after which charities would be eligible to contribute.
The Fundraising Regulator is yet to say how many charities have contributed to the levy.
The last update given to Civil Society News, in October 2016, said the levy had raised £500,000.
The regulator has also yet to confirm whether it reached its funding targets for the levy set out in its first business plan, which budgeted for the levy to raise a further £600,000 in November, and £750,000 in December.
All organisations registered with Fundraising Levy to appear on public register
Etherington’s comments follow an announcement from the Fundraising Regulator through its Twitter account on Monday, which said the regulator was preparing to publish a “public register” of registered charities on its website.
All organisations that register with us will appear on our Public Register, soon to be installed on our website: https://t.co/VdCUG80NSL
— FundraisingRegulator (@FundrRegulator) May 22, 2017
Charities which fall outside of the £100,000 or higher levy on fundraising expenditure have been able to register with the Fundraising Regulator since March this year. These smaller organisations are required to pay a flat, £50 annual fee for the right to display the Fundraising Regulator's 'Registered With' badge.
In Fundraising Magazine
The public register was first raised by the Fundraising Regulator’s board in its meeting minutes from 21 March 2017. At the time, the Fundraising Regulator had had 70 charities who do not fall within its levy on fundraising expenditure register with it.
The Fundraising Regulator has yet to respond to a request from Civil Society Media about whether or not the public register will also include a list of charities paying the levy.
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