Fundraisers should only approach someone who has agreed to contact from a specific organisation, a group of charities has said
Charities should only get in touch with donors if they have agreed to be contacted by that specific organisations, a group of charities in England have said.
The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) has developed plans for an opt-in fundraising system with a group of the UK’s biggest charities.
It would mean that fundraisers could only approach donors who have already agreed to contact from their cause.
The move is a bid to clamp down on data sharing amongst charities which led to some people being inundated with fundraising requests.
Under the proposals, charities would still be able to buy data but could only call or mail people if they had given permission to be contacted by the named charity. Currently people agree to being “happy to receive marketing from selected third parties”.
Charities that call their donors or members of the public would also regularly ask them if they are happy to be contacted in the future.
we believe that there needs to be greater consideration of the risks and impact of some genuine existing supporters not hearing from charities they care about - Daniel Fluskey, IoF
Fundraising letters should only be sent where the charity has a positive reason to believe that the potential donor has an interest in hearing from charities or that they have an interest in the particular cause. They would always have an opportunity to opt out of future mailing.
The move would significantly cut down on direct mail and unwanted calls and put members of the public back in control of who contacts them.
The proposals have been put forward by NCVO supported by a group including the British Red Cross, Shelter, Oxfam, Beating Bowel Cancer, and Battersea Dogs & Cats Home.
The group was established to look into how charities can best meet the public’s expectations of them as well as navigate the complex and changing data regulation environment. The recommendations go above and beyond the legal minimum and would ensure that charities demonstrably work to higher standards.
Research carried out for the group shows that seven in 10 donors think the amount of contact they get from the charities they support is about right, but donors say their trust in charities would increase if they were given more control over whether and how they were contacted.
The proposals have been welcomed by the Fundraising Regulator for England and Wales.
The regulator will now consider whether to incorporate them into its fundraising code, which all UK charities must abide by. The code has already been strengthened significantly in recent months in order to address public concerns.
Stephen Dunmore, chief executive of the Fundraising Regulator, said: “We welcome this report as a positive contribution that will help charities understand the requirement to secure proper consent from their donors as a key part of restoring public trust and confidence in fundraising.
“We will review the report and consider how we use it to prepare appropriate guidance for charities and in our development of the Code of Fundraising Practice.”
Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, said: “This is a complex area for charities. The working group have taken the time to untangle the legal and regulatory issues involved in using the public’s contact data in order to come up with guidelines that are practical and demonstrate that charities take their responsibility to work to high standards seriously.”
Daniel Fluskey, head of policy at the Institute of Fundraising, issued a note of caution however.
"Individuals need to have choice and control over the communications they receive, but charities also need to be able to engage new supporters and establish relationships," he said. "Some of the recommendations will require further thought as part of any review of changes to the code. In particular, we believe that there needs to be greater consideration of the risks and impact of some genuine existing supporters not hearing from charities they care about."
Scottish charities are subject to the fundraising code, although complaints from the public are dealt with through Scottish Fundraising Complaints, which is run by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations.
