# PFRA to publish annual benchmarks for breaches of face-to-face fundraising rules - Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2013/06/20/pfra-publish-annual-benchmarks-breaches-facetoface-fundraising-rules/ - Published: 2013-06-20T14:50:24+01:00 - Author: Howard Lake The Public Fundraising Regulatory Association (PFRA) is to begin publishing an annual benchmark of penalty points incurred by its member organisation in their street face-to-face fundraising. The first full annual **Street F2F Compliance Benchmark** will be published in ** May 2014**, and will show the average number of penalty points issued per compliance visit for the previous financial year across all its members who carry out street face-to-face fundraising. Only agencies and charities running in-house teams accrue penalty points. The Benchmark will also give the average number of points issued for breaches of the three types of rules: ## Advertisement * **Operational rules** – relating to stipulations contained in [PFRA](http://www.pfra.org.uk) site agreements and the operation of fundraising, such as standing too close to a shop, leaving bags unattended, or working off-delineation.   * **Conduct rules** – e.g. relating to the behaviour of fundraisers, such as following people for more than three steps or failing immediately to terminate an engagement. * **Administrative rules** – e.g. failing to submit diary requests on time. Charities who are PFRA members will receive details of points issued on campaigns conducted for them by agencies. Individual PFRA provider members, namely fundraising agencies and charities running in-house teams. will be informed of their own individual average compliance scores, plus their average scores for operational, conduct and administrative rules. The Street F2F Compliance Benchmark will be accompanied by a graph showing average points awarded during each month of the financial year. This will indicate whether the average is increasing, decreasing or is stable. ## What is a compliance visit? A compliance visit is a mystery shopping exercise by one of PFRA’s official contractors or a site check by a member of the PFRA’s compliance team. Activities are analysed against a checklist of potential rule breaches. Interim report in November Before the first annual report next year, PFRA will publish an **interim report in November 2013**. This will provide results from the first full year of operation since the penalties and standards regime was introduced in September 2012. Nick Henry, the [Public Fundraising Regulatory Association](http://www.pfra.org.uk)’ s head of standards and allocations, said that their standards procedures now provided" the most rigorous system of enforcement and compliance for any type of fundraising". He added: "Our annual benchmark will give an overall indication of how well or badly our members perform and gives our members the opportunity to publicise how well they are performing against the benchmark. After a few years, we will have enough information to start identifying long-term trends in compliance." _Image: [tick and crosses](http://thumb10.shutterstock.com/thumb_small/997985/100211102/stock-photo-voting-survey-concept-isolated-on-white-background-100211102.jpg) by alexndr on Shutterstock.com_ * **[Dorset Community Foundation runs Do It For Dorset Day](https://fundraising.co.uk/2013/06/21/dorset-community-foundation-runs-do-it-dorset-day/)**( 21 June 2013) * **[Variety Ambassador Duncan Goodhew honoured in train-naming ceremony](https://fundraising.co.uk/2013/06/21/variety-ambassador-duncan-goodhew-honoured-trainnaming-ceremony/)**( 21 June 2013) * **[Foundation Center reports $1.2 billion given globally to human rights by foundations](https://fundraising.co.uk/2013/06/21/foundation-center-reports-12-billion-given-globally-human-rights-foundations/)**( 21 June 2013)