Complaint about UNICEF UK's telephone fundraising upheld
Howard Lake | 17 April 2012 | News
Four unwanted calls by UNICEF UK to a supporter who had been registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) have resulted in a complaint to the Fundraising Standards Board which has been upheld.
The complainant received four unwanted calls from the charity between March and April 2011. UNICEF UK had deemed the person a ‘warm donor’ because they had purchased Christmas cards from the charity between 2000 and 2004.
The complainant had asked the charity’s telephone fundraising agency to stop calling after each call. After the first two calls, a complaint was made to the Telephone Preference Service in April 2011. UNICEF UK confirmed that no future calls would be made, but two further calls were received that month.
UNICEF UK apologised and undertook an internal review but the complainant then took the matter to the Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB).
Breaches of Fundraising Promise and Telephone Fundraising Code
In the adjudication on 20 February 2012, the FRSB Adjudication Board determined that UNICEF UK had breached the Fundraising Promise clauses “We Are Honest and Open” and “We are Respectful” and section 3.5 of the Institute of Fundraising’s Telephone Fundraising Code. The complaint was upheld and the Board requested a report from UNICEF UK about the steps it would take to ensure that no further breach would occur. The report has been published today.
UNICEF UK has undertaken a full review of its telephone fundraising activities and has introduced improvements that the FRSB has commended as “robust”.
Improvements to telephone fundraising
The improvements include:
• Introducing a charity-wide definition of a ‘warm supporter’;
• All data is screened against the TPS register, including ‘warm supporters’ and telephone operators acting on UNICEF UK’s behalf have been reminded of the importance of checking that the supporter is happy to continue receiving calls from the charity;
• Reducing the timeframe within which callers are removed from calling lists and;
• Ensuring that all suppliers also comply with industry standards.
Lawrie Simanowitz, Board Member of the Fundraising Standards Board, and Partner in the charities team at Bates Wells & Braithwaite solicitors, said: “Although the Board unanimously upheld this complaint, we felt that UNICEF UK’s subsequent internal investigation and review of its telephone fundraising services, the way it works with suppliers and its treatment of TPS registration has been exemplary.”
Jon Sparkes, Chief Operating Officer atUNICEF UK, added that the charity accepts the FRSB’s ruling and apologises to the complainant “unreservedly”.
He said that the internal review had led “to improvements in our complaints procedure, telephone marketing scripts, and the process by which we select former and current supporters for telephone contact. We believe our telephone fundraising services are now among the most robust in our market.”
www.frsb.org.uk
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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.