Richard Hamer says the ball is in the court of Scotland's charities when it comes to setting up a new regulatory system north of the border

Deeply uncomfortable. That’s how I would best describe the opening stages of Sir Stuart Etherington’s appearance before the UK parliament’s public administration and constitutional affairs committee on 3 November.

Why did England’s "trade association" (Sir Stewart’s term) for charities, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), not know about the alleged poor practices of fundraisers, he was asked? Did he think that perhaps his "blindness to what was going on" was because he was representing charities rather than the best interests of donors?

This isn’t a swipe at Sir Stewart or the NCVO. The committee’s questions chime with the key finding of Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations' (SCVO) review of fundraising regulation in Scotland: that the governance of fundraising seems to have become detached from charity governance. Which is odd, given that fundraisers are generally employed by charities.

This is an issue for all charities, because how fundraising is perceived affects how the wider third sector is perceived.

Richard Hamer

It is true, of course, that not all organisations that fundraise are charities; my former employer Amnesty International is a good example. Similarly, many third sector organisations don’t fundraise from individuals.

But this is an issue for all charities, because how fundraising is perceived affects how the wider third sector is perceived. Tangential issues, such as chief executive pay and administration costs, are propelled into the public eye because of the "misuse" of donor or grant monies.

SCVO’s fundraising summit on 26 November gives us an opportunity to address the difficult questions head on. Are fundraisers willing to be regulated by a system set up by the charities that employ them, rather than their own industry bodies? Are charities willing to step forward and define how fundraising is regulated?

And, of course, do we want a UK-wide fundraising regulatory system that will inevitably involve a degree of UK government interference? Do we want a uniquely Scottish solution that could increase administration costs for UK-wide charities? Is a hybrid the best of both worlds – or a fudge?

It’s over to you, Scotland’s charities. What do you think?

Richard Hamer is a partner at Animate Consulting. He researched and drafted, on behalf of SCVO, the Scottish review of fundraising requested by the Scottish Government.