Paul Stallard, who was the chair of the Public Fundraising Association until its merger with Institute of Fundraising, has said there should be one “single regulator” for all aspects of charity activity, in a written submission to the House of Lords Select Committee on Charities.
Stallard said: “Much of the reason for setting up the select committee will be rendered void if there were a single regulator for all charities and all charity activity.
“This means all charity activity including the current attempt to prove self-regulation should be driven through the Charity Commission.”
He also recommended that the government introduce legislation now, rather than wait for the new Fundraising Regulator to fail.
“Currently self-regulation is being given a chance to work,” he said. “If it does not work the government has said it will pass primary legislation to achieve the same ends.
“For all the reasons mentioned above, because of what we have seen happen in the past few years, because charities are so important to our rich and diverse society and because charities are funded by money given freely by the public - I would favour primary legislation now.”
‘Some fundraising directors of large charities dropped the ball’
Stallard also said he thought that the most charities are “responsible and accountable” but that some have struggled to “cope with the ever increasing size and scale of their operations”.
He said: “The increasing levels of complexity and exacting demands made upon their organisations and skills of their employees and volunteers to cope has created huge pressures upon all organisations but its effect is most obviously seen with the larger ones.
“That some fundraising directors of very large charities dropped the ball when it came to the employment of some questionable fundraising agency practices there is no doubt.
“They would not employ poor companies or allow poor practices out of choice but they were obviously so busy keeping many other balls in the air they paid the inevitable price by way of shockingly negative media coverage and subsequent damage to their brand and income.”
Should there be a charity tsar?
He also suggested that the government should consider appointing a charity tsar to speak on behalf of the sector to the media and public.
“People in the sector understand the difference between the CEO at the Charity Commission, NCVO, CFG or Acevo but when the public hear someone speak from the sector they just hear ‘charities’ speaking. So, consumers, donors and charity supporters cannot be blamed for thinking ill of charities,” he said.
Stallard suggested that a government-appointed charity tsar could be a solution, “in the absence of the sector being able to sort itself out in this regard”.
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