# Charityfacts

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2005/03/21/charityfacts/
- Published: 2005-03-21T00:00:00+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**A new initiative to educate the public about the realities of fundraising, charity
administration and giving has been launched at www.charityfacts.org**

· Why are there so many charities?
· Why do they need to spend their money on fundraising
and administration?· How do techniques such as direct mail and street fundraising
work? · How good are these techniques at raising funds?

These are among some of the questions that will be answered on a new independent
website due to be launched on March 18th. Charityfacts.org is designed to provide
detailed information to donors about what to expect from the organisations they 
support and to dispel some of the current myths about fundraising and giving. The
site will also outline best practice in fundraising and provide information on the
steps individuals can take if things should go wrong.

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The site will meet a very real need for education and information. Donors remain
very concerned that charities may be wasteful and want as high a proportion of their
gift as possible to be applied to the cause rather than being spent on other functions
such as fundraising and administration. Over 90% of the public believe there should
be stricter controls over what charities can spend on these activities, yet recent
research at Bristol Business School has shown that this is because they greatly 
over-estimate the amounts that charities actually spend on these activities. Given
that the public believe, for example, that it costs twice as much to raise a £1 
as is actually the case, it is unsurprising that there have been such strong calls
for greater controls over fundraising activity.

The goal of charityfacts.org is to provide an authoritative source of information
on this issue and others that have a critical impact on public trust and confidence
in the voluntary sector as a whole. Providing a wealth of information on everything
from the rationale for expenditure on administration to why charities sometimes 
include pens in their mailpacks, the site is designed to build trust and stimulate
confidence in giving. It is written in plain English and is free of jargon to make
it accessible to as wide an audience as possible.

Specific sections will cover what to expect from various forms of fundraising, providing
donors, prospective donors, media contacts and researchers with the questions they
should ask, plus ‘behind the scenes’ information on charity performance figures 
and how these should be used and interpreted. Charities will be encouraged to link
to the site, giving their donors/prospective donors access to an independent and
unbiased source of information for answers to their questions.

Charityfacts.org is an independent initiative led by Professor Adrian Sargeant (
The UK’s only Professor of Nonprofit Marketing and Fundraising).

The initial development has been funded by a small group of major UK fundraising
charities (Cancer Research UK, NSPCC, British Red Cross and RSPCA) and is endorsed
by the U.K’s professional body for fundraisers, the Institute of Fundraising.

The site is due to launch on the 18th March 2005. For further information contact
Adrian Sargeant on 01884 34888 or 07973 829851 or Ad*************@****ac.uk