Code of practice for Irish charities launched
Howard Lake | 15 March 2011 | News
The Irish Tax Reform Group (ITRG) is inviting charities to sign up to a new code of practice which includes a donor’s charter for fundraising. The code is supported by a complaints and feedback procedure for the public and a monitoring body to ensure compliance.
The donor’s charter allows a right to know about the causes for which a charity is fundraising and whether its fundraisers are employees or third party agents.
The code of practice applies to all fundraising including door-to-door and street collections, telemarketing, direct mail, emergency appeals, internet donations, raffles, church-gate collections and bequests.
Signatories to the code will be required to adhere to five key components – a commitment to good practice, a donor charter, a complaints procedure, a monitoring group and publication of an annual report.
The ITRG hopes that the voluntary code will demonstrate that statutory regulation, which may come with the 2009 Charities Act, will not be necessary.
“The Irish give more to charities than many of their international counterparts and open and honest fundraising is absolutely crucial to public trust,” Sheila Nordon, executive director of Irish Charities and Tax Research, told the Irish Times.
www.ictr.ie
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.