PFRA has as dual role as a regulator in being the bridge between councils and charities practising F2F.
1) Professional standards
We maintain and improve professional standards in the F2F sector by enforcing the Institute of Fundraising’s Face-to-Face Activity Code of Fundraising Practice, running a mystery shopping programme, and ensuring our members complete an accreditation process. We also have a complaints process that can be initiated by anyone who feels a fundraiser has transgressed the code of practice. For full details, see our Professional Standards section
2) Ensuring fair allocation of fundraising on the ground
A major part of PFRA’s role is to ensure the sustainability of F2F and ensure that it is practised in a controlled way. We run a fair and equitable site allocation programme and work with local councils to negotiate ‘site management agreements’ (SMAs) that contain guarantees about the locations and times that fundraising can take place.
Our overriding regulatory ethos is that ‘responsibility enables sustainability’.
If we, as a sector, take responsibility for our own professional standards, we will enable fundraising to take place with the full co-operation of local authorities. This will ensure the sustainability of F2F as in fundraising method –rather than burning itself out in a short space of time, charities will be able to use F2F to find new supporters for many years to come.