Need for greater clarity on rules highlighted at telephone fundraising summit
Howard Lake | 4 August 2015 | News
Discussions at last Friday’s telephone fundraising summit in London highlighted the need for even clearer rules on what fundraisers and their agencies could and could not do when using the telephone to fundraise.
The summit was called following newspaper criticism of alleged fundraising practices at two telephone fundraising agencies on behalf of some national charities. It was co-hosted by the Fundraising Standards Board and the Institute of Fundraising with the aim of reviewing current practices and compliance with:
• the Code of Fundraising Practice
• Telephone Preference Service requirements and
• Information Commissioner’s Office guidance
The summit was attended by around 200 people, including representatives from the Information Commissioner’s Office, Direct Marketing Association and the Telephone Preference Service, as well as relevant suppliers and charities.
Differences of interpretation of requirements between some speakers and some spirited contributions from the audience demonstrated that there is still some confusion about the practical application of some of the rules.
This backs up some of the anecdotal conversations amongst fundraisers at the Institute’s National Convention last month when the Daily Mail first accused a telephone fundraising agency and four of its national charity clients of ‘bullying’ tactics towards donors and of fundraising from vulnerable people, specifically those with dementia.
In the FRSB’s interim investigation report into charity fundraising practices, published on 9th June, the FRSB called for the Institute of Fundraising’s Code of Fundraising Practice to be amended to clarify that charities cannot call people that are registered on the Telephone Preference Service (TPS), unless the individual has given clear permission to receive calls.
The Institute of Fundraising’s Standards Committee has agreed to strengthen compliance in this area and a review of telephone fundraising practices is currently underway.
Efforts to produce clarity in guidance
The telephone fundraising summit’s discussions raised a number of common issues, in particular data consent options, warm donor relationships, and contact frequency.
At the end of the summit it was agreed that:
• the ICO commit will use the summit’s feedback in its forthcoming review of its Direct Marketing Guidance
• the IoF will meet with the ICO to contribute to that guidance review
• the IoF will share those contributions with its own task-group that is looking into telephone fundraising as part of its review of the Code of Fundraising Practice.
Peter Lewis, Chief Executive of the Institute of Fundraising said:
“It is really important that charities are able to contact current supporters. We will be meeting with the ICO to feed into their code review and to get absolute clarity on how charities can use the telephone and the TPS; clarity that will inform our review of the Code.”
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Alistair McLean, chief executive of the FRSB, added:
“Public feeling and recent allegations about telephone fundraising are deeply worrying and it’s clear that charities and agencies alike need greater clarity in the rules they are expected to abide by in operating within the legal requirements of the TPS. It’s encouraging that the IoF will be working with the ICO to identify amendments to the Code going forward.”
Photo: mobile phone icons by Blablo101 on Shutterstock.com
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.