The eight-strong membership team of the panel which will set fundraising standards for Scotland has been named overnight.
The Independent Fundraising Standards and Adjudication Panel for Scotland will be responsible for overseeing fundraising standards and complaints about charities registered in Scotland.
The announcement was made by the Scottish Fundraising Implementation Group, which is responsible for implementing a review of fundraising regulation in Scotland.
The panel will be chaired by Alison Elliot, associate director of the Centre for Theology and Public Issues at the University of Edinburgh and a former convener of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations from 2007 to 2013.
The seven other panel members are: Jay Butler, non-executive director of NHS 24; Sheila Logan, a data protection adviser; Cathy Bell, director of development and alumni at Glasgow University; Val Surgenor, chair of the Aberlour Child Care rust; Paul Drury, chair of the IoF Scotland Standards Committee, and Michelle Armstrong, corporate and community fundraising manager at Cancer Research UK.
SCVO said the panel members bring a collective “wealth of experience and expertise, including understanding of fundraising, charities and the voluntary sector” and possesses “specialist knowledge of charity law, consumer law and data protection”.
Jude Turbyne, head of engagement at OSCR, Scotland’s charity regulator, said: “We welcome the announcement of the Panel that will play a key role in ensuring that charities are both complying with the fundraising code and working to ensure high standards in terms of their complaints handing and fundraising practices. OSCR will be supporting the Panel by providing a secretariat function.”
Scotland rejects UK-wide remit of Fundraising Regulator
On 30 June this year, SCVO formally recommended that the Scottish Government reject the establishment of the Fundraising Regulator in Scotland, following months of consultation with the Scottish charity sector and public.
This followed the recommendation by an SCVO working group on the fundraising question for a purely “Scottish solution” to regulating the industry.
The Scottish model places greater emphasis for the regulation of fundraising on the charities themselves, with OSCR taking on an enhanced “ombudsman-style role”, supplemented by the independent panel who will be responsible for setting the Code of Fundraising Practice in Scotland.
John Downie, director of public affairs, at the SCVO, said: “Our research earlier this year demonstrated that people in Scotland trust charities and, right across the board, we’re seeing that people in Scotland are more closely connected to charities and are more likely to give their time and money to them than people in other parts of the UK.
“We need to do everything in our power to maintain and strengthen this trust, and the new fundraising independent panel will play an important role in this by overseeing fundraising standards and fundraising complaints about charities registered in Scotland.”
IoF looking to establish Memorandum of Understanding with new Scottish panel
The Institute of Fundraising has said that it will look to establish a Memorandum of Understanding with the new panel, so that it can “work closely with it to ensure the experience and expertise of its members in Scotland are fully shared and considered”.
The IoF also said it is in the process of establishing a new Standards Advisroy Board for Scotland, which will be put in place to “respond to proposals of any changes in regulation in Scotland”.
Fraser Hudghton of IoF Scotland, said: “We are delighted that this new panel has such a breadth of fundraising experience and expertise at its core. This will be critical for its success in both helping to shape the regulatory framework in Scotland and also for understanding both the needs and aspirations of charities and their supporters. We look forward to working closely with the panel on behalf of the fundraising community.”
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