Keeping fundraising on the straight and narrow

1. Keeping fundraising on the straight and narrow NUS CONFERENCE 2014 Daniel Fluskey, Head of Policy and Research

2. What will be covered • Overview of how fundraising is regulated • Who the different organisations involved are and what they do • The fundraising ‘rules’ and what happens when it goes wrong • Common issues and pitfalls • Fundraising ethics • ….and any questions

3. Self-regulation of fundraising

4. Our Code of Fundraising Practice Membership body -5,500 individuals -410 charities Code of Fundraising Practice Standards expected of all IoF members to follow in their fundraising Best practice for the wider sector http://www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk/guidance/code-of-fundraising-practice/

5. What if charities break the code? Set the Code Expect members to follow it Do not enforce the Code, make rulings, or sanction • Take complaints from members of the public • Make judgments according to the IoF Code • Sanction charities: • - Apology • Training • Withdraw fundraising material

6. What’s in the Code • Our values: Legal Open Honest Respectful MUST = a legal requirement OUGHT = a standard set by IoF

7. What’s in the Code Data protection rules • Direct Marketing • Telephone Fundraising • Legacies • Payment of Fundraisers • How to handle donations • Raffles and lotteries ……. Etc, etc! Advertising standards Licences and permission Gambling legislation

8. Must or Ought? • All funds raised for a particular cause _____ be used for that particular cause • Organisations _____ employ all best efforts to avoid soliciting regular donations, such as Direct Debits, from under ___ • Organisations ____ maintain good data hygiene practices (removing incorrect information from your data) to ensure donor information is accurate, reflects donors’ communication preferences and is retained only for as long as necessary

9. Must or Ought? • All funds raised for a particular cause MUST be used for that particular cause • Organisations OUGHT to employ all best efforts to avoid soliciting regular donations, such as Direct Debits, from under 18s • Organisations MUST maintain good data hygiene practices (removing incorrect information from your data) to ensure donor information is accurate, reflects donors’ communication preferences and is retained only for as long as necessary

10. What bothers the public - key findings FRSB Annual Complaints Report 2014 Complaints by fundraising type Top 10 Methods

11. What bothers the public - key findings FRSB Annual Complaints Report 2014 Complaints by fundraising type Top 10 Methods

12. What makes a complaint? “ Dear Ms. Flusky….” Just being asked “Why are you spending money on sending me letters…” “I asked you not to email me again!” Upset by the pictures you’ve used Poor behaviour of fundraisers

13. Complaints vs bad practice • Vast majority of complaints resolved by the charity in the first instance • Out of 48,432 complaints, 18 required formal intervention from FRSB – top two topics were ‘fundraising behaviour’ and ‘lack of transparency’ • Where appropriate, FRSB make a formal adjudication and make recommendations to the IoF: e.g, vulnerable people and door to door fundraising practice

14. For charities to think about… • Are we members of the regulators? • Are we satisfied that our fundraising teams know the standards and rules that they should be following? • If we receive a complaint do we have a process to resolve it? • How can we monitor what we’re doing (and our partners) to make sure that we’re fundraising in the right way?

15. Common issues and pitfalls

16. Five common questions 1. Can we run a raffle or a lottery? A raffle is a form of a lottery, and all lotteries are regulated by the Gambling Commission. While you need a licence to run most lotteries, some are exempt – for example, an ‘incidental, non-commercial lottery’ • the lottery MUST be incidental to a non-commercial event, where none of the sums raised is to be used for private gain; • tickets MUST only be sold during the event, on the premises where the event is held • the draw MUST take place during the event; • the draw MUST not rollover; and Deductions from the profits going to good causes MUST NOT exceed £100 in costs and £500 in prizes.

17. Five common questions 2. Commercial Participator agreements Commercial participator = any person who carries on a business and in the course of the business represents that it will make donations to a charity MUST have a written agreement with the organisation it is raising money for, including: • Which charities will benefit and in which proportions • What proportion of the price of the goods will be given to the charity • Any amount the commercial participator will be paid

18. Five common questions 3. Data protection and Direct Marketing a) If sensitive data is being processed, explicit consent MUST be obtained. b) If a donor or contact informs an organisation that they do not wish to be subject to direct marketing, then the organisation MUST comply with that request c) Organisations MUST provide a valid address for opt-out requests.

19. Five common questions 4. Returning/refusing donations 1.7 a “Fundraising organisations which are charities MUST not return donations unless certain criteria are fulfilled. Failed appeal Cooling off period (£100+ by credit/debit card and in response to advertisement on TV/Radio) Moral obligation Nb check Charity Commission Guidance Refusing a donation: what’s in the best interest of the charity (damage their cause/reputation; large sums of money;) – can ‘delay acceptance’ to make it tax effective

20. Five common questions 5. Volunteer fundraisers ‘In aid’ or ‘on behalf of’? 1) On behalf of: If a volunteer is ‘on behalf of’, they will have been appointed by the organisation to act on its behalf and the organisation will be responsible for his or her act 2) In aid of: A volunteer acting 'in aid of' an organisation is raising funds but acting independently of the organisation. An organisation will often not know about the volunteer’s acts. ‘On behalf of’ – charity has duties and responsibilities ‘in aid of – charity OUGHT to make it clear that will not accept any responsibility or liability for these events.

21. What does it mean to be ethical? • Campaigning • Investing • Beneficiary Involvement • Employment (minimum wage, zero hours contracts, CEO salaries) • Spending money ‘properly’ • …and raising money ‘in the right way’

22. Fundraising ‘in the right way’ • OUGHT to have a complaints procedure • OUGHT NOT to denigrate other individuals or organisations • OUGHT NOT to exaggerate facts relating to the beneficiary • Particular care OUGHT to be taken to avoid causing offence (age/religion/sex/sexual orientation/disability) • OUGHT to be able to justify the use of potentially shocking images, and give warnings of such material

23. Who can tell you what’s right or wrong? • Question of judgment: not a straightforward yes or no! • Trustee duties: what’s in the best interest of the charity? • Can you justify your decisions? • And can you show that they’ve been made in the right way? • Have you got the right policies in place? (e.g. donation refusal and acceptance) • Do you know what the legal requirements are and follow best practice

24. More information • Introductory videos http://www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk/guidance/five-minute-fundraiser/ • Code of Practice http://www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk/guidance/code-of-fundraising-practice/ Contact us: policy@institute-of-fundraising.org.uk