# MP calls for fundraisers to support face-to-face

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/06/30/mp-calls-fundraisers-support-facetoface/
- Published: 2009-06-30T10:06:42+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

[⌊Martin Horwood MP at PFRA reception⌉⌊Martin Horwood MP at PFRA reception⌉[

 

Liberal Democrat MP and former charity fundraiser Martin Horwood has urged professional
fundraisers to show more support for face-to-face (F2F) fundraising.

 

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“I want to see more fundraising directors supporting face-to-face in public and 
not just through the pages of the charity sector press,” he said.

 

Horwood, MP for Cheltenham since 2005, was speaking at a reception at the Houses
of Parliament to mark the fifth anniversary of the Public Fundraising Regulatory
Association (PFRA), the self-regulatory body for F2F fundraising.

 

The former fundraiser for Oxfam and the Alzheimer’s Society said: “The money raised
through F2F fundraising has helped to lift people out of poverty and helped them
to understand their rights and to challenge those keeping them in poverty.

 

“If the thrust to regulate F2F out of existence had succeeded, the problem would
not have been that just a few agencies lost their contracts and put some people 
out of work, it would have been that people living in poverty and people suffering
problems and disadvantages all around the world would have suffered”.

 

He endorsed the work of the PFRA, adding that he has tried to explain and build 
understanding of face-to-face fundraising in Parliament through his work on the 
Charities Act.

 

He commented that opposition to F2F as a fundraising method often came from “people
who think they know how it works or how much it costs but actually don’t know a 
lot about it at all”.

 

He pointed out that MPs should recognise and be familiar with the value of face-
to-face fundraising. “If some MPs question whether face-to-face contact on the street
is the best way for charities to engage donors”, he advised, “ask them how they 
engage with voters. Yes, they do it by direct mail and by telemarketing, but they
will tell you that the best way to get through to voters is to get out on to the
street and talk to them directly – we call it canvassing.”

 

www.pfra.org.uk

 

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