When two's a crowd
Howard Lake | 12 February 2009 | Blogs
And frankly, three would be a disaster.
I’m talking about the decision of the Practical Fundraising Association to launch a rival good practice scheme to the Fundraising Standards Board. Apparently it’s GOOD FUNDRAISING CODE (their shouting not mine) was launched on 12th February in response to demand because “many causes cannot afford the fees other codes charge”. Though membership of the PFA itself does cost – more than the lowest bands charged by the FRSB.
Whatever the merits or otherwise of this venture there are two fundamental problems:
First, the PFA as it openly states is a trade body. It is an agency and effectively a consultancy with a vested interest. Such a body cannot in any way be deemed to be independent and for the sake of its own credibility, the fundraising sector cannot have a non independent body running a scheme that promotes good practice.
Secondly, the sector needs to have one authoritative voice on good practice to which everyone is signed up. It’s not a particularly good example in the current climate but the FSA was born out of a mish mash of rival and confusing trade bodies all purporting to self regulate different parts of the financial services industry. The public didn’t know which was the real mccoy and which to have confidence in. This forced the government to act. Nothing is more likely to spur the government into action than the fundraising sector generating myriad schemes all purporting to provide confidence for the giving public.
The sector needs one self regulatory body and one set of codes. And for any small organisation tempted by PFA’s offer, go look again at what membership of the Fundraising Standards Board costs and offers. And if the PFA or its parent, Company Solutions, really wanted to be helpful, it could consider sponsoring the fee for small organisations. Or is making the government-backed self-regulatory scheme work not really the point?
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.