# What use is a toothless tiger?

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/03/08/what-use-toothless-tiger/
- Published: 2009-03-08T16:34:01+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

The example of the FSA is too good a one to pass up when considering what kind of
beast the [FRSB](http://www.frsb.org.uk) needs to be. Staffed by senior people from
the industry it was set up to regulate, many have since acknowledged that the FSA
was just too close to its former colleagues and employers. Some appear even to have
been associated with all those innovative, risky practices that are considered to
have resulted in our current, sorry economic pass. Little wonder then that they 
were reluctant to shine a light in the murkier corners of such activity.

 

And herein lies the quandary for the FRSB. How good a friend should it be to the
fundraising sector it has been set up to regulate? One reason it has struggled to
recruit the necessary volume of members is that the sector hasn’t liked its tone,
its attitude or its totally illusory willingness to do the sector down (no actual
evidence of such behaviour has ever been produced). But the FRSB has responded to
the criticism by taking a more conciliatory approach with the current recruitment
strategy, trying to show organisations how FRSB membership can in fact be helpful
to their fundraising. We are on your side is the underlying theme.

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How realistic is this? Can a regulatory body and those it regulates ever truly be
pals? If members have too much influence in how, what and why the FRSB does what
it does, can all the other stakeholders – and especially the individuals, businesses
and grantmakers who give – feel confident in the self-regulatory body’s independence
and robustness? That it is a tiger with teeth? Put it this way – knowing what we
all know now about the FSA, how much confidence do we have in its ability to hold
the banking sector to account for what it does with our money?

 

 * **[FRSB achieves 1,000 members mark](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/03/17/frsb-achieves-1000-members-mark/)**(
   17 March 2009)
 * **[Interview with Alistair McLean of the Fundraising Standards Board](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/04/28/interview-alistair-mclean-fundraising-standards-board/)**(
   28 April 2009)
 * **[FRSB provide increased support for charities handling fundraising complaints](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/06/15/frsb-provide-increased-support-charities-handling-fundraising-complaints/)**(
   15 June 2009)