IoF opens consultation on public fundraising accreditation programme
Melanie May | 14 December 2016 | News
The Institute of Fundraising has launched a closed consultation on its proposed accreditation programme for public fundraising.
The consultation will run until the end of January, with the objective of launching the programme by the new financial year. The accreditation programme will aim to build greater confidence in public fundraising, and help drive consistently high standards across the charity sector.
According to the IoF, the accreditation process and assessment would cover a wide range of topics related to ‘high quality fundraising’ and focus on people, policies and processes. It will aim to ensure that the policies in place are accurate and up to date, such as data protection, protecting vulnerable people and complaints handling, with assessment criteria covering and testing an organisation’s knowledge, systems, processes and policies as they relate to both fundraising law and good practice.
The programme is designed to work alongside the responsibility of charities to conduct their own due diligence and the IoF expects it to be especially beneficial for smaller charities without great resources.
In addition, the programme will include training observations to establish the quality of training processes and the checks that are in place to help ensure fundraising is carried out to a high standard.
Following accreditation, members will have to agree to greater levels of monitoring and oversight to ensure standards are maintained.
Peter Hills-Jones, director of compliance at the IoF, said:
“High standards are at the core of what it means to be a good fundraiser. Charities and their agency partners, if they’re members of the IoF, are making a strong commitment to high quality and sustainable fundraising. This accreditation programme will be the next step to drive up fundraising standards even further, and help to maintain public confidence and support for the vital causes our members work on.”
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.