Tag Campaigns enters voluntary administration

Howard Lake | 11 January 2013 | News

• Tagged with:
• Consulting & Agencies
• face-to-face
• Law / policy

Face-to-face fundraising company Tag Campaigns Ltd is being placed into voluntary administration with immediate effect. Its directors Tony Charalambides and Matthew Atkinson announced the move yesterday.

Set up in 2006, Tag generated millions of pounds for charity clients, working with organisations such as Oxfam and Marie Curie Cancer Care. According to the Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB), it specialised in ""PSMS” (Premium Short Message Service) which involves asking the public to make a one-off text donation (which goes directly to the charity) with the view to them being called subsequently and asked to make a regular contribution".

In June 2012 the company was investigated by The Sunday Telegraph and elements of its training criticised.

A subsequent Fundraising Standards Board investigation concluded that Tag staff had breached the Institute of Fundraising's face-to-face activity code of practice.

The directors gave three reasons for the move. They explained that:

• the company had "invested significantly in the development of pioneering new fundraising methods" to yield longer-term benefits to charity clients, which, over the past two years, had led to financial losses.
   
• it had faced "an unprecedented degree of media and regulatory attention in recent months, following a small number of examples of what we have always acknowledged were unacceptable operational shortcomings".
   
• it was concerned about "the changing landscape with regard to sites access and allocation".

The directors stated that "no charity is owed any money and all staff will be paid for the work they have done".

In putting the company into voluntary administration, the directors thanked all the fundraisers, support staff, clients and external stakeholders involved in the company.

Tag's closure comes just 11 months after another street fundraising company, Gift, was placed in voluntary administration.

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.