# Complaint about UNICEF UK's telephone fundraising upheld

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2012/04/17/complaint-about-unicef-uk039s-telephone-fundraising-upheld/
- Published: 2012-04-17T07:33:13+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

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.

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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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