The Fundraising Regulator has announced that it will change the way it publicly reports charities that have failed to act on requests to opt-out of marketing communications.
Its Fundraising Preference Service (FPS) allows members of the public to request to stop direct market communications from charities registered in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Since 2017, failing to act on these requests within 28 days of receiving at least one was a breach of the regulator’s Code of Fundraising Practice and charities would be publicly named on the regulator’s website.
From today, the regulator will not name charities on its website unless there are at least three uncollected suppressions from the public, after a review from the board.
It comes after the number of charities not accessing requests to suppress people on their marketing databases more than doubled from August 2023 to March 2024.
As of 1 March 2024, 78 requests had not been accessed by 59 charities. With the changes to reporting made, the number of charities listed online has fallen to seven.
Changing the policy is ‘low risk’
The risk to the public of changing this policy is “very low”, said the regulator, as its data does not suggest that the charities in breach are continuing to contact people when they have asked them to stop.
The main change will be publicly naming the charity as in breach of code – as the regulator will continue to contact them if FPS requests under three go unrecognised.
Daisy Houghton, head of communications and corporate services at the Fundraising Regulator, told Civil Society: “There’s just a general sense that we needed to make the threshold at which a charity was named just a bit more appropriate and fair.”
She said that the change will make the regulator have a more “nuanced approach” which is “more reasonable” and accounts for people that may have mistakenly chosen one charity on their FPS request instead of another.
Houghton said: “The board made the decision that we wouldn't name charities anymore until there's three supressions and that's because often that would kind of sweep up any charities where there was an accidental mistake, where someone's chosen the charity because really they meant somebody else.”
Over 2,946 charities have set their organisations up on the FPS charity portal.
CIoF: ‘Makes the system more accessible for charities’
Claire Stanley, director of policy and communications at the Chartered Institute of Fundraising, said: “This is a welcome action from the Fundraising Regulator.
“The FPS is an important tool to ensure supporters are protected when they no longer wish to hear from an organisation.
“Our members are committed to best practice and allowing them more time to access the Fundraising Regulator’s portal and respond to suppression notifications is a positive step towards making the system more accessible for charities, whilst ensuring donors are still protected.”
