# Complaint against CRUK over F2F costs is not upheld

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2013/04/17/complaint-against-cruk-over-f2f-costs-not-upheld/
- Published: 2013-04-17T00:02:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

The Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB) has rejected a complaint about Cancer Research
UK's response to questions about the costs of its face-to-face (F2F) fundraising
activities. The Board unanimously judged that the charity had adhered to the relevant
requirements of the [Fundraising Promise](http://www.frsb.org.uk/fundraising-promise/)
and the Institute of Fundraising's [Key Principles of the Code of Fundraising Practice](http://www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk/home/).

## Background to the complaint

The complaint arose from a series of contacts begun in June 2011 when the complainant
first questioned CRUK about its **F2F costs and return on investment**. CRUK replied
in August 2011 and the dialogue continued until March 2012, when the charity declined
to give further detail, referring the complainant back to its original letter.

## Advertisement

CRUK's argument centred around how much commercially sensitive information it was
willing to make public.

## The complaint

The complainant approached the FRSB in June 2012 and asked for a resolution. The
FRSB's compliance manager considered the complaint aginst

 *  **the Fundraising Promise** clause "We are honest and open"
     
 *  and the Institute of Fundraising's **Accountability and Transparency in Fundraising
   Code of Practice** (which has been updated since then)

It was concluded that CRUK had not breached the Promise or the Code.

## Stage 3 adjudication

The complainant was not satisfied with this judgement and asked for the complaint
to be escalated to the FRSB's Stage 3 adjudication. The complainant argued that 
CRUK had declined to answer some of the questions.

## Adjudication

Meeting on 20 March 2013, the FRSB Board unanimously agreed that CRUK had handled
the complainant's queries" in a reasonable and fair way", answering the majority
of questions put to the charity about the costs of F2F fundraising campaigns.

However, **the Board cautioned the charity for failing to refer the complainant 
to the FRSB **when it became clear that the charity could not resolve the complaint.
The charity has assured the Board that changes have been instituted to ensure that
this will not happen again.

Colin Lloyd, Chair of the Fundraising Standards Board, said: "Disclosure of information
such as the costs of charity fundraising campaigns is a very sensitive area. It 
is crucial that charities are open and honest with supporters, but at the same time
the Board understands that they cannot – nor would we expect them to – give away
commercially sensitive information. It can often be a difficult judgement call about
where to draw the line and we feel that Cancer Research UK took a balanced and reasoned
approach."

The full adjudication report can be downloaded from the FRSB.

[www.frsb.org.uk](http://www.frsb.org.uk)

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