02/09/09
- ‘Blacklist’, approved register and standardised referencing under consideration
- Views sought on definition of ‘rogue fundraiser’
- Consultation closes on September 28
The working party set up to tackle the issue of ‘rogue fundraisers’ by the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association – the self-regulatory body for face-to-face (F2F) and door-to-door (D2D) fundraising – has produced its first consultation document.
Initially, the driver for the working party was to protect agencies from employees who completed direct debit mandates for ‘phantom’ donors and who moved between agency and agency with no checks on their behaviour.
However, after its first meeting to set its terms of reference, the working party agreed to expand its remit to look at the issue of all rogue fundraisers who might bring their employer agency or charity they are fundraising for into disrepute.
The consultation document suggests three courses of action:
a) A ‘blacklist’
b) An approved register
c) Standardised reference procedure
a) ‘Blacklist’
A ‘blacklist’ would be a list of people who had been identified as ‘rogue fundraisers’ that would be held centrally by the PFRA. No-one whose name appeared on this list would be able to work as a street or door fundraiser for any PFRA provider (agency) or user (charity) member.
b) Approved register
An approved register would be a list of all street and door fundraisers currently working for PFRA provider or user members who have passed some form of accreditation process. Only people whose names appeared on the register would be able to get a job as a street or door fundraiser with a PFRA provider or user member.
c) Standardised inter-agency referencing procedure
Under this procedure, there would be no central register of fundraisers – either a blacklist or an approved register. Instead there would be a standardised referencing procedure that all fundraisers joining a provider or user member and all fundraisers moving between provider or user members would need to go through. No-one would be able to commence employment until their reference procedure had been completed.
The document also asks for views on how a ‘rogue fundraiser’ should be defined.
The working party is chaired by Graham Bunce, who, as a general manager of professional fundraising organisation Support Direct, is part of the Cobra Group, which supplies door-to-door sales people for energy companies under the EnergySure scheme.
Other members of the working party are:
- Milly Ahmed, co-managing director, Gift Fundraising
- Sandeep Bermi, head of training, Fundraising Initiatives
- James Davis, managing director, Dialogue Direct
- Peter Flynn, senior campaign co-ordinator, Action for Blind People
- Richard Verden, head of individual giving, British Red Cross
- Anna Walsh, head of social fundraising, Bluefrog.
Graham Bunce says: “We have had an extremely productive first meeting at which we scoped out some ideas on how to tackle this minority problem of so-called ‘rogue’ fundraisers. Implementation of any of these options has logistical, legal and cost implications so we are now asking for the views of the PFRA membership – and anyone else with an interest in this issue.”
The consultation document will be distributed to PFRA members on Monday 8 September, with a closing day of Monday 28 September. The document will be available online on the PFRA’s website (www.pfra.org.uk) or from Ian MacQuillin, head of communications, on ian@pfra.org.uk. The working party will meet again on Thursday, October 8.
Mick Aldridge, PFRA ceo, says: “This is an important, member-led project for the PFRA that gives our stakeholders the opportunity to shape the development of an important initiative in the street and door fundraising sector.”