01/07/11
- Advocates to talk about how and why F2F is used; PFRA to focus on regulation
- Independent of PFRA’s communications and PR function
- Advocates will choose how and when they respond to media enquiries
The Public Fundraising Regulatory Association is setting up an ‘advocacy’ scheme for face-to-face fundraising.
Under the F2F Advocacy Programme, fundraising experts will volunteer themselves for media interviews to talk about how and why charities use face-to-face, covering topics such as how it used, how much money it raises, and whether it is cost-effective.
With the F2F advocates focusing on how F2F is used, PFRA will be free to engage with the media, and other stakeholders, about how F2F is regulated and how best practice standards are maintained.
The first four advocates to have offered their services to the programme are:
- Giles Pegram CBE – independent fundraising consultant and, as former director of fundraising at the NSPCC, chief instigator of the Full Stop campaign
- Ken Burnett – longstanding fundraising ‘guru’, author of the seminal book Relationship Fundraising and founder of the Showcase of Fundraising Inspiration and Innovation (SOFII)
- Professor Adrian Sargeant – professor of philanthropy at Indiana University and perhaps the world’s foremost fundraising academic
- Rowena Lewis – a former street fundraiser, former head of fundraising at the Fawcett Society and most recently executive lead on the Philanthropy Review.
Ian MacQuillin, PFRA’s head of communications, who devised the programme, says: “PFRA’s main role is to regulate the sustainable use of face-to-face fundraising on streets and doorsteps throughout the UK. However, we have accumulated this huge fount of knowledge so we’re often the first port of call for journalists who want to know about F2F.
“But they also come to us first when F2F is being attacked and, almost by default, we’ve fallen into the role of defending and advocating the medium. Sometimes, I can tell that journalists don’t trust what I’m telling them. They’re thinking: well you would say that, it’s your job to defend your members’ interests. When that happens in future, I can tell them that they don’t need to take PFRA’s word, they can talk to Giles, Ken, Adrian or Rowena.”
However, the advocates will act independently of the PFRA. MacQuillin says: “It is important to stress that the advocates will not be an extension of the PFRA’s PR function. I won’t be asking them to promote any particular standpoint and I certainly won’t ask them to defend the regulatory work that PFRA does.
“Advocates will decide what stories they want to get involved in and what arguments they want to advance. On occasions, they might well be critical of F2F or they might say things that PFRA would have shied away from.” All advocates have informed PFRA what types of media request they want to respond to, what media (print, broadcast etc) they will respond to, and how they wish to be contacted.