The Fundraising Regulator is the independent regulator of charitable

fundraising Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. It was established on 7 July 2016, replacing the Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB). The Regulator developed from recommendations made by the cross-party Review of fundraising regulation chaired by Sir Stuart Etherington in September 2015. Fundraising by

charities A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a cha ...

only registered in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

is regulated by the Scottish Fundraising Standards Panel.

Regulatory activities

Levy and registration

The Fundraising Regulator is funded through a voluntary levy on charities spending £100,000 or more each year on

. Other charities outside the levy can register to demonstrate their commitment to the fundraising standards by paying an administrative charge of £50 a year. From March 2018, charities in Northern Ireland were able to register with the Fundraising Regulator. In March 2019, the Fundraising Regulator announced it was changing the way it collects its levy. The changes came into effect in September 2019.

The Code of Fundraising Practice

The Code of Fundraising Practice sets the standards that apply to fundraising carried out by all charitable institutions and third-party fundraisers in the UK. The code was originally developed in 2005 by the

Institute of Fundraising The Chartered Institute of Fundraising is a registered charity founded in 1983, and is the professional membership body for UK fundraising. The Institute's mission is to support fundraisers through leadership and representation; best practice a ...

. The cross-party Review recommended responsibility for the code be transferred to the new Fundraising Regulator.

Amendments to the code

In October 2017 the Fundraising Regulator amended the code to give more privacy to volunteers who deal with static collection boxes. A consultation on proposed changes to the code regarding

data protection Information privacy is the relationship between the collection and dissemination of data, technology, the public expectation of privacy, contextual information norms, and the legal and political issues surrounding them. It is also known as data pr ...

ran from October 2017 to December 2017. In June 2018 new standards were introduced for

online fundraising Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...

platforms. A consultation aimed at improving the accessibility of the code ran from 10 September 2018 to 16 November 2018. On 6 June 2019 the Fundraising Regulator published an updated version of the code which came into effect on 1 October 2019.

Complaints

The Fundraising Regulator investigates complaints about fundraising where these cannot be resolved by the

organizations An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose. The word is derived from ...

themselves. It does so by considering whether the fundraising organization has complied with the code. It deals with complaints about fundraising in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and fundraising in Scotland where it is carried out by charities registered primarily with the

Charity Commission for England and Wales , type = Non-ministerial government department , seal = , seal_caption = , logo = Charity Commission for England and Wales logo.svg , logo_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , d ...

or the

Charity Commission for Northern Ireland The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland is the independent regulator of Northern Ireland charities. It was established in 2009 under the Charities Act (NI) 2008. Aims The stated vision of the commission is for "a dynamic and well governed ...

. In October 2018 the Board of the Fundraising Regulator decided to name organizations it investigated from 1 March 2019. The first set of 10 named investigation summaries was issued in September 2019.

Fundraising Preference Service

The Fundraising Preference Service (FPS) is a service run by the Fundraising Regulator that allows members of the public to request charities stop contacting them by email, telephone, post and/or text message with fundraising requests. People can make a request on behalf of someone else if they have their authority to do so. The FPS launched on 6 July 2017. In January 2018 the Fundraising Regulator announced a

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language family, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut P ...

version of the FPS. In March 2019 the Fundraising Regulator named for the first-time charities it was acting against for breaching the FPS. It also announced charities would have 21 days to act on suppression requests made through the FPS. At its annual meeting in November 2019 the Fundraising Regulator announced a formal review of the FPS to be conducted in 2020.

Structure

The Fundraising Regulator is a company limited by

guarantee Guarantee is a legal term more comprehensive and of higher import than either warranty or "security". It most commonly designates a private transaction by means of which one person, to obtain some trust, confidence or credit for another, engages ...

(No.10016446) in England and Wales and is governed by a non-executive

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

. In July 2018, Gerald Oppenheim replaced Stephen Dunmore as

Chief Executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of the Fundraising Regulator. On 1 January 2019, Lord Toby Harris succeeded Lord Grade as Chair of the Fundraising Regulator.

History of fundraising regulation

Fundraising Standards Board

The Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB) was established in 2007 as the independent self-regulatory scheme for fundraising in the UK. The FRSB regulated charity compliance with standards applying to different types of fundraising activity in England and Wales set out in a Code of Fundraising Practice compiled by the

. The Fundraising Regulator replaced the FRSB following the review of fundraising self-regulation in 2015. The FRSB announced its closure on 10 November 2016.

Public Fundraising Regulatory Association (PFRA)

The Public Fundraising Regulatory Association oversaw door to door and street fundraising where a fundraiser asks someone to make a regular

donation A donation is a gift for charity, humanitarian aid, or to benefit a cause. A donation may take various forms, including money, alms, services, or goods such as clothing, toys, food, or vehicles. A donation may satisfy medical needs such as blo ...

to a charity by

direct debit A direct debit or direct withdrawal is a financial transaction in which one organisation withdraws funds from a payer's bank account., https://www.directdebit.co.uk/direct-debit-explained/what-is-direct-debit/ Formally, the organisation that calls f ...

. The Fundraising Regulator assumed the PFRA’s regulatory powers following the review of fundraising self-regulation in 2015. The PFRA merged with the Institute of Fundraising in August 2016.

Review of the Charities Act 2006

In 2011, the UK government appointed Lord Hodgson to conduct a review of the

Charities Act 2006 The Charities Act 2006 (c 50) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom intended to alter the regulatory framework in which charities operate, partly by amending the Charities Act 1993. The Act was mostly superseded by the Charities Act ...

. The review identified that the self-regulatory system of fundraising in the UK was “confused” with three bodies involved; the Institute of Fundraising, the FRSB and the PFRA.

Review of fundraising self-regulation

Former Chief Executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) Sir Stuart Etherington chaired a review into the self-regulation of charity fundraising in 2015 with a cross-party review panel of three peers; Lord Leigh of Hurley, Baroness Pitkeathley and

Lord Wallace of Saltaire William John Lawrence Wallace, Baron Wallace of Saltaire, (born 12 March 1941 in Leicester), is a British academic, writer, and Liberal Democrat politician, who was a Lord in Waiting from 2010 to 2015. Early life Wallace was educated at West ...

. The review recommended: * replacing the FRSB with a new fundraising regulator * that fundraising regulation remains self-regulatory * that charity leaders take more responsibility for fundraising activities * that responsibility for the Code of Fundraising Practice should be transferred from the Institute of Fundraising to the new regulator * that the regulatory responsibilities of the PFRA should transfer to the new regulator * the creation of a fundraising preference service that allows people to opt out of charity appeals.

References

External links

* {{authority control Standards organisations in the United Kingdom Fundraising 2007 establishments in the United Kingdom Organizations established in 2007 Self-regulatory organisations in the United Kingdom