More people complain about misleading information

Complaints about online fundraising received by 56 of the largest fundraising charities have massively increased, a report reveals.

The annual stats by England and Wales’ Fundraising Regulator shows 5,836 complaints about digital fundraising were made in the year to the end of March, compared with 1,660 in the previous year.

The regulator said that despite the increase in complaints, the number of concerns reported were relatively small when compared with the level of activity carried out.

Complaints about corporate fundraising also rose dramatically, to 2,504 compared with 108 in the previous year.

The most common cause of complaint across all fundraising methods was misleading information, which could involve unclear claims about why donations are needed or how they will be spent, or a failure to present information that allows the donor to make an informed decision.

The regulator said the 56 charities that shared their complaints data for the report are household name organisations that each spend more than £5m a year on their fundraising activities.

“Together they account for a significant proportion of the total amount fundraised from members of the public each year,” the report says.

Gerald Oppenheim, chief executive of the Fundraising Regulator, said: “It is encouraging to see that the overall number of complaints about charitable fundraising continued to decline during the pandemic, which shows that good fundraising practice has prevailed at a time of unprecedented challenges for the sector.”