The Fundraising Regulator has confirmed that it currently has 19 ongoing investigations into fundraising practice, and has now received 174 complaints from the public since its launch.
A spokesman for the Fundraising Regulator today confirmed that it currently has 19 investigations open into potential breaches of the Code of Fundraising Practice. The spokesman would not confirm whether charities or agencies made up the majority of the complaints.
Of the 19, only the investigation around the practices of the now defunct Neet Feet fundraising agency has been bought before the Fundraising Regulator’s adjudication committee. Accusations of unethical fundraising practices were made against Neet Feet by the Sun on 11 July.
The director of the agency, which was a member of the PFRA at the time, apologised for the behaviour uncovered in the Sun’s article, and Neet Feet subsequently went into voluntary liquidation on 25 July, with the loss of 100 jobs.
At the time, the Fundraising Regulator said that two of its adjudication committee members: Catherine Cotterell, deputy executive director of fundraising at Unicef UK, and Peter Hills-Jones, then chief executive of the PFRA, would be standing down from the adjudication process due to a conflict of interest in relation to the agency.
The Fundraising Regulator later clarified that Hills-Jones would not be stepping down from the adjudication.
The spokesman also confirmed that the regulator has now received 174 complaints from the public since its launch in July. The figure stood at “over 150” complaints on 12 September, when the regulator last clarified complaints figures.
He said that the majority of these complaints “have been referred to the charity concerned, or to other relevant regulators”.
‘As a trustee I don’t think I ever worried about how we got the money,’ says Lord Grade
Lord Grade, interim chair of the Fundraising Regulator, has appeared in an interview with the Guardian, and on BBC Radio 4 this morning.
In the interview with the Guardian, Grade said he had some sympathy with charity trustees caught up in the events of summer 2015.
He said: “I thought to myself, as a trustee for over 30-40 years with dozens of charities, I don’t think I ever worried about how we got the money… and I think that’s been typical of most trustees. The whole question of the ethics of fundraising has never really been an issue”.
Grade said that the regulator had made a “good start” in terms of its regulatory obligations, and said he expected the first adjudications would be published in a few weeks’ time.
He also seemed to confirm that his time as interim chair of the Fundraising Regulator would come to an end in June 2017.
The Fundraising Regulator has been contacted to confirm this.
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