​FRSB investigation finds major charities didn't monitor fundraising agency, falling foul of its code

Four leading charities breached the fundraising code over the way they contacted potential donors.

British Red Cross, Macmillan Cancer Support, Oxfam and the NSPCC were found to have been in breach of the Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB) code of conduct following a Daily Mail undercover investigation.

The article alleged that, through the now defunct fundraising agency GoGen, the charities “ruthlessly hounded vulnerable people for cash – even if they tried to opt out of receiving calls.”

The newspaper was particularly critical of GoGen’s training procedures, which it claimed encouraged fundraisers to adopt a “brutal” and “ferocious” approach to fundraising.

Complaints centred on the fact that despite potential donors signing up to the Telephone Preference Service not to receive marketing calls, the agency ignored this when working on behalf of the charities.

As such the FRSB found that all four charities failed to monitor GoGen’s fundraising activities appropriately and had therefore breached section 4.2(b) of the code.

We welcome the significant actions that each charity has since undertaken - Peter Wanless

Andrew Hind, chair of the FRSB, said: "While this investigation outlines a number of failings at the agency, ultimate responsibility always rests with charities for the conduct of any third-party agencies representing them. We welcome the significant actions that each charity has since undertaken to ensure closer working with any agencies they work with in the future, including better monitoring and supervision procedures."

Peter Wanless, chief executive of the NSPCC, said: "Specific fundraising actions exposed at GoGen were unacceptable and, once they were revealed, the NSPCC terminated its relationship with them. We accept it would have been good practice to keep better records of our monitoring activity and have made substantial changes to our fundraising operation so we are now better placed to serve our highly valued supporters."

Mark Goldring, chief executive of Oxfam, said: "We accept the FRSB’s findings. I would like to apologise once again for the fact we did not spot that GoGen was falling well below the high standards both we and the public expect of our fundraisers."

A spokeswoman for the Red Cross said: "We were hugely disappointed to learn last year of the behaviour of GoGen agency staff. It was completely unacceptable and not only did we suspend our work with them, but also all of our telephone fundraising while we conducted a full review of our standards and procedures. As a result we have further strengthened our practices to put in place extensive measures to monitor any agencies we work with."

And Lynda Thomas, chief executive of Macmillan, responded: "We are extremely sorry that the work undertaken by GoGen on our behalf did not meet the high standards we expect, which is why we immediately suspended our work with it. We have appointed a dedicated compliance manager who is undertaking a comprehensive programme of work to implement rigorous new training, quality assurance and monitoring procedures across all our fundraising activities."

The FRSB launched its investigation in July 2015 after the newspaper allegations, with the agency ceasing trading later that month, citing a "reduction in business resulting from misleading media coverage".