Members of the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association recruited 8 per cent more donors in the year ending 31 March through face-to-face fundraising than the year before, according to its annual report.

PFRA members recruited a total of 152,212 donors through street face-to-face fundraising across the UK in 2014/15, up by 10,729 on the previous year. These figures were published ahead of the PFRA’s annual general meeting last week.

Donor recruitment from door-to-door fundraising also rose by 10 per cent, with 63,681 donating across the UK. While these numbers increased in both Scotland and the rest of the UK, the number of donors recruited in London fell by 4 per cent.

The PFRA report also shows that the number of complaints about fundraising that it referred to the Fundraising Standards Board fell by 25 per cent to 15 complaints in the year ending March 2015, compared with 20 the previous year.

According to the report, the PFRA has signed 17 new site-management agreements (SMAs) in 2014/15, compared to 32 new ones in 2013/14. The report also shows that nine in ten councils with SMAs in place say they are effective. Croydon in south London became the 100th town to sign an SMA with the PFRA earlier this month.

Peter Hills-Jones, the chief executive of the PRFA, said of the SMA programme: “The feedback we receive from councils is overwhelmingly positive, and we rely on them to act as one part of our comprehensive system of gatekeepers.

“The figures in this report tell their own story, and they suggest to me that the chief drivers of public concern about fundraising no longer centre on the behaviour of fundraisers but rather on the number of approaches, and the frequency with which they are made.

“That is why the coverage of Olive Cooke’s death – with the allegations that she was swamped with requests – resonated so strongly with the public. This is a huge challenge for the sector, and to address it we need to know and understand more.”