# FRSB's Annual Complaints Return to be most detailed to date

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2011/01/10/frsb039s-annual-complaints-return-be-most-detailed-date/
- Published: 2011-01-10T23:45:47+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

The Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB) has today asked its charity members to complete
their compulsory Annual Complaints Return, summarising all the fundraising complaints
they have received during 2010.

For the first time, the self-regulatory body’s survey will cover complaints about
legacy fundraising and house-to-house clothing collections, making it the most comprehensive
of its annual surveys to date.

Last year the FRSB introduced questions for its members about direct mail and telephone
fundraising, the areas of fundraising that attract the most complaints. These identified
that the public was most concerned about the frequency of fundraising mailings and
the tone of telephone calls.

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This year’s new questions on legacy fundraising are designed to discover if there
are particular methods and channels that offend the public more than others and 
whether the administration of legacy pledges is an area of major concern. The new
questions on house-to-house clothing collections are included partly to help establish
benchmarks for the new House-to-House Collections Code of Practice which will be
launched this year by the Institute of Fundraising.

Alistair McLean, Chief Executive of the Fundraising Standards Board, said: “A key
aim of our Annual Complaints Return is to gauge public opinion of the various fundraising
methods used. By expanding the breadth and detail of the returns we hope our members
will be able to provide further critical information that will help shape best practice
guidance in the future, ultimately ensuring that complaints are kept to an absolute
minimum.”

The return requests information about the type of fundraising activity conducted,
volume levels and complaints received by each member charity. Complaint figures 
for 2009, published last year, showed that levels of complaints remained low, with
an average of one complaint received for every 208,000 fundraising contacts or approaches
made.

For the first time, the FRSB has this year enlisted independent fundraising specialist
and researcher Professor Adrian Sargeant to analyse the returns data and the trends
it presents. His findings will be reported in the FRSB’s Annual Report in June 2011.

Sargeant, Professor of fundraising at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
and Professor of fundraising and nonprofit marketing at Bristol Business School,
said: “The FRSB is doing vital work in understanding the nature of complaints made
about fundraising practice in this country. Only when we understand the areas where
we’re weak can we begin to develop our professional practice and improve public 
confidence as a consequence”.

All current member charities of the FRSB that joined before July 2010 are required
to complete an annual complaints return. The deadline to submit them is 7 March 
2011.

www.frsb.org.uk

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