Just 7 per cent of people said they were aware of the Fundraising Regulator, according to research published today.
The regulator has published The role of the Fundraising Regulator: public awareness, trust and expectations, which looks at public understanding of the regulator, trust in fundraisers and views on the Code of Fundraising Practice.
Light and Shade Research was commissioned to produce the report. The agency carried out a representative survey of over 2,000 people and held a number of in-depth interviews.
7 per cent of those who took part in the survey could either spontaneously name the Fundraising Regulator or say they had heard of it previously when prompted - the lowest of all regulators who featured in the survey questions. 40 per cent were aware of the Charity Commission and 82 per cent were aware of Ofsted
Trust linked to public awareness
The report says members of the public who are aware, or became aware, of the Fundraising Regulator and the Code of Fundraising Practice report higher levels of trust in fundraisers.
It says that six in 10 people reported higher trust in fundraisers once they had been made aware of the regulator and the code.
Some 90 per cent of those surveyed agreed that informing the public about the regulator and the code was important.
It also reports that 84 per cent of the public thought the Fundraising Preference Service was important, once they had been told about it.
Other findings
The report also finds:
- Trust in fundraisers correlates with donations
- A third of donors donate via a fundraiser
- 80 per cent say it is important for fundraisers to display the Fundraising Regulator logo
- Two thirds of the UK public donated in the past year, with 60 per cent making one off donations and 25 per cent making a regular donation
Raising public awareness
Last May the Fundraising Regulator launched a campaign to raise public awareness of the Fundraising Preference Service, its tool to enable members of the public to inform charities that would like to stop hearing from them.
This was a 12-week campaign that saw 76,000 leaflets made available at doctors' surgeries in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
A spokesperson for the Fundraising Regulator today told Civil Society News: “Given we launched in July 2016, it’s still relatively early days for building awareness.
"But we can to explore how we do this via our website and the public facing information produce.
"We also want to work with the sector to identify ways they can contribute to raising awareness of the commitment that they are making to good fundraising practice and what it means to be registered.
“That said, it’s not just about raising overall awareness.
"The key question is whether members of the public can find us if they have an issue with a charity’s fundraising, so in the last year we have been focusing on making our website much easier to find."
The importance of regulation
Priya Warner, head of policy at the Fundraising Regulator said: “We are pleased that the general public believes in the importance of regulation and that charities should follow our Code of Fundraising Practice.
“It is also encouraging to see how generous the public are with their donations and how much they value the work of fundraisers.
“We regularly seek the opinions of the charity sector to help inform and improve how we operate and it has been an extremely useful exercise for us to do this with the general public.”
|
Related articles
