Scotland’s decision to essentially go it alone on fundraising self-regulation is hardly surprising. The bigger question is what the decision is going to mean for the rest of the UK and large, cross-border charities, writes Hugh Radojev.
SCVO has today published its report into a workable new model of fundraising regulation in Scotland. It will come as a surprise to almost no-one that, after six months or more of consultation with the sector and public north of the border, SCVO has recommended that Scottish charities and OSCR regulate the sector separately from the Fundraising Regulator.
The reasons for this are manifold and are of wider scope than simply the charitable sector. For starters, Holyrood and the Scottish government were never likely to give what is essentially a Westminster-backed regulator a carte-blanche remit to interfere in the goings on of the Scottish charitable sector.
Fundraising is the latest area to be affected by the ongoing friction between the SNP-dominated Scottish government and the Tory-majority government in Westminster.
A self-regulated, independent Scottish sector is, in essence, one in the eye for Westminster.
The consultation results also show a growing disconnect on the subject of charities between the people of Scotland and of the rest of the UK. Public trust and confidence surveys, conducted by both the Charity Commission in England and Wales and by OSCR in Scotland, show that the reputation of charities have suffered over the last 12 months or so.
Yet, as OSCR’s results published in March show, while the situation in terms of trust has definitely worsened in Scotland, it hasn’t done so at anything like the rate it has in the rest of the UK.
We can trace the reasons for this back to how the sector views itself, and is viewed, in Scotland.
Of the 24,000 odd registered charities in Scotland, just over 1 per cent have a fundraised income of over £500,000.
The sector is not just smaller but also far more rooted in the fabric of the community, and has a much more amicable and understanding relationship with the government. It is part of the wider discourse of Scottish society in ways that almost aren't possible for the voluntary sector in the rest of the UK.
What does this mean for the rest of the UK? According to SCVO, there are 170 charities in Scotland who spend more than £100,000 on fundraising. While it is fair to assume many of these are large, cross-border charities who will be bought into the Fundraising Regulator’s levy anyway, there will undoubtedly be a number that are purely Scotland based. As a result, the regulator will have lost out on a potentially large funding stream.
The loss of said funding will probably be more or less offset however by the fact that, given that it will likely have no remit in Scotland, it will not have to spend any money in regulating there.
As leaked budgeting documents showed, the Fundraising Regulator had set aside over £50,000 over the next 9 months to set up a Scotland office. This can go back in the coffers now, to be distributed elsewhere.
It’s now also highly likely that the proposed Fundraising Preference Service won’t be adopted in Scotland. This opens up a possible Pandora’s Box of issues, particularly for third party telephone and direct marketing agencies.
Sources in Scotland seem convinced that - even if the FPS isn’t adopted there - existing regulation such as the TPS and DMS, combined with effectively a “co-regulatory” approach between Scotland’s independent standards panel and the Fundraising Regulator will effectively safeguard against any dodgy practices.
That remains to be seen however.
The party line at the Fundraising Regulator is that everyone is happy with Scotland’s decision.
In private, however, they will be rueing just how much more complicated this decision will likely make regulating cross-border charities. Every single complaint will now need to be checked to ensure that both the complainer and the subject of the complaint are based south of the border. English people upset with a Scottish charity will have to complain in Scotland. Scottish charities will be able to phone people listed on the FPS - much to their annoyance, presumably.
It also seems the Fundraising Regulator really didn’t do enough to woo Scottish charities.
When the FRSB was set up, almost the very next day, it sent representatives north to speak to charities in Scotland and explain its remit and how it envisioned it working. No such steps were taken by anyone at the Fundraising Regulator.
Why that is remains to be seen; one could argue that given its relatively skeletal staff and pressing deadlines, the Fundraising Regulator simply didn’t have the time to make its case in Scotland. Less forgiving observers could perhaps argue that, given all that has gone before, the Fundraising Regulator simply gave up on Scotland as a lost cause. Or was it so London-centric in its thinking that, by the time it remembered Scotland at all, it was too late.
We will know more in the coming months but, it’s suffice to say, these are certainly interesting times in the voluntary sector. Interesting times indeed.
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