Fundraising self-regulation is not working and the Institute of Fundraising must either stop setting the Code of Fundraising Practice or radically overhaul its governance, the chief executive of the NCVO said last night.
In a speech delivered to charity leaders at the end of NCVO’s Evolve 2015 conference, Sir Stuart Etherington (pictured) said that "self regulation is not necessarily working in its current form" but that it could succeed in securing the confidence of the public and the government.
Etherington's comments come in the wake of a media furore over fundraisers' behaviour, following the apparent suicide of Olive Cooke, a 92-year-old poppy seller who newspapers claim was "hounded to death" by charities. Since then a Fundraising Standards Board report has recommended sweeping changes to the fundraising regulatory regime.
Etherington said that there was a lack of confidence in the current regime, and that to achieve the necessary changes the IoF should either hand over the responsibility of setting the code to the FRSB or “put clear blue water” between itself and the Standards Committee, the IoF body which sets the Code.
He said: “A conspicuous issue in the current setup lies with the Institute of Fundraising’s dual identity, being both the champion of fundraisers, and a body with a key role in regulating fundraisers, in that it sets the code which the Fundraising Standards Board adjudicates against.
“I would encourage the IoF either to divest itself of its role in setting the code, or instead, to dramatically overhaul the governance of the code such that it befits a self-regulatory body rather than a trade association.”
Imminent threat of government regulation
Etherington said that if changes were not made to make fundraising regulations appear more robust, then the sector faced the possibility of “government-backed regulation”.
"The legal power exists already," he said. "It would simply take a stroke of the minister’s pen to set government regulation of fundraising in motion."
He said the move would be popular with the public.
"Fundraisers are asking the government not to implement a popular, easy and relatively cheap policy," he said. "We are asking the minister to defend in parliament to a system many of us would privately express significant doubts about.
"We will need to act decisively in order to justify this faith in us."
Etherington also said the FRSB should adjudicate on the whole sector, rather than only its members, and that the Charity Commission should step in to make sure all charities followed the FRSB's rules, and “ask questions of any that commit serious or repeated branches”.
He said that, in order to appear like a “serious regulator” the FRSB should “abandon its membership model” so that it could adjudicate the entire fundraising sector.
He said that changes to fundraising regulation must happen quickly, and criticised how long it had taken the IoF, the FRSB and the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association to respond to a report in 2012 by Lord Hodgson calling for closer working between the three bodies.
He said charity trustees must also look at charities' fundraising strategies and ask whether they were acceptable.
“If you would be unhappy being on the receiving end of your organisation’s fundraising techniques, then they require reassessment”.
To read the speech in full, click here.
