Susan Smith explains why the death of Olive Cooke highlights the need for fundraising regulation to go much further
It’s been a dark week for charity fundraising. The death of 92-year-old Olive Cooke has cast a shadow over the industry that is only partially mitigated by promises to investigate her particular case and review the fundraising code. It will take a long time for the public to forget this incident.
Let’s be honest, charity fundraising doesn’t have a great reputation to begin with. The Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB) was created in 2006 in a last bid attempt to self-regulate the industry after a number of serious scandals, not least Edinburgh’s Moonbeams charity, which was discovered to have squandered nearly £3 million in 2003.
Self regulation has made a difference, public attitudes are improving. The Public Fundraising Regulatory Association’s (PFRA) work to improve face-to-face fundraising is also paying off. As NFPSynergy revealed this week, public attitudes to street fundraisers, for example, are softening. On the other hand, half of people are still annoyed by phone calls and door-step charity collectors.
We will never know to what extent Olive Cooke’s mental health was affected by the onslaught of charity begging letters and phone calls she was subjected to. But regardless of whether this actually contributed to her death, it should never have happened.
We will never know to what extent Olive Cooke’s mental health was affected by the onslaught of charity begging letters, but it should never have happened
Competition for public donations has never been steeper, but that's not an excuse for charities to use heavy-handed tactics. We all know from personal experience the length that some charities will go to persuade donors to give more – and every time a donor is annoyed by another phone call, the reputation of the whole sector is affected.
It is not enough to urge the public to register with the telephone preference service or contact the individual charity. If, as in Olive Cooke’s case, a person is being bombarded by hundreds of different contacts, the problem has gone well passed this.
The Institute of Fundraising, FSB and PFRA needs to take a real, hard look at the existing practice and find ways to make it much stronger. They need to ask and answer some tough questions. Should a charity contact donors more than once a year? Could a donor be asked after every contact if and how they would like to be contacted in future? Is it possible to create a single register of people who don’t want to be contacted by any charity? Should the need to raise funds come at the expense of donors' right to a peaceful life?
Self-regulation has been working, but like it or not, Olive Cooke's death makes it clear it needs to work a lot harder. The alternative is government regulation, which is a level of intervention in third sector that must be avoided.
