Charity fundraising is a noble choice, whether it’s a voluntarily activity or a paid career. The work is extremely valuable to charities and their beneficiaries because, without funding, non-profits would simply not be able to survive. And like with any work or professional setting, there are certain rules that fundraisers should know and abide by.

But one remarkable difference with face to face fundraisers is that they have multiple challenges to fulfil in their chosen career paths. They’re not just tasked with ‘just’ raising money (even though that’s difficult enough) and following the rules that come with that. Nor are they just continually adapting to the current challenges that affect their jobs like the Covid pandemic or cost of living crisis.

Fundraisers are actively trying to change public perception about their role too.

What perception is that?

On the whole, opinions about charities are extremely positive; people know the undeniable help they offer and the difference they’re making.

But in the last couple of decades, a shadow of doubt has crept in about the management and spending habits of some charities.

Criticism about charity job salaries, accusations that money is wasted on administration and beliefs that funds shouldn’t go anywhere except straight to beneficiaries.

But why is that?

It’s true there has been indiscrepancy and corruption within the charity sector. As with every sector from religion to education, the actions of a rare few are all it seems to need for an entire sector to be tarnished.   

It’s a great shame that in the instance of non-profits, a couple of corrupt, mis-spending CEOs and over-enthusiastic (but invited) direct mailing campaigns have blackened the reputations of literally thousands of hard working, decent charity workers.

Scrupulous, negative and relentless media attention of the British press has undoubtedly damaged charities overall reputation. The positive difference they make is minimised in exchange for a scoop.

It seems that in particular, face to face fundraisers receive the brunt of detrimental language in the media. Terms like ‘chuggers’ ‘prey’, ‘harassment’ and ‘intimidating’ thrown dramatically into the faces of readers, creating a culture of dislike and avoidance.

This type of negative coverage is quite probably motivated by the simple fact that bad news and scandal sells, which makes it advantageous for journalists to highlight and exaggerate anything that could be interpreted as bad.

Press reports also play on the cultural element - in that the simple act of asking for money doesn’t always sit well.

Fundraising has evolved enormously since its humble beginnings back in America in 1892 when it was innovative for small teams of men to dispatched on the streets to recruit donors for the YMCA in instalments.

The method worked extremely well and importantly got funding in one hit which enabled those involved to get back to doing the actual charity work.  It’s easy to see why the street fundraising trend continued to grow.

It’s fair to say that social behaviour was probably a lot more restrained back then – at least in proper society –although there were complaints of course. Some people just don’t like being asked for money, full stop.

But whether they like it or not, street fundraisers, door to door fundraisers and private site fundraising raises millions and millions of pounds each year for causes.

Read about the evolution of fundraising here

Although the general technique of approaching strangers to solicit donors hasn’t changed, the society we do that in has.

People are far more outspoken when they’re displeased about something and we’re better at taking action when things are causing harm.

And as demonstrated, when harm has been done, it takes a very long time to repair that damage.

Anti-donors resist the whole concept of fundraising on the basis that even to ask for donations is distasteful. They argue that it should be the decision of a person to donate when they choose to. They are generally skeptical about charities and their spending - with larger charities under the greatest suspicion of all.  

But we know, as fundraising agency that charities and fundraisers cannot simply stop asking. Because in fact, 80% of donors give to charity because somebody asked them to give.

So to stop would not only have catastrophic results on charitable income, it would decrease awareness. Millions of current donors might never have even been aware of a cause without the valuable sharing of information that fundraisers do.

In short, fundraisers have a duty to ask on behalf of the beneficiaries of charities.

However, charity can’t ignore the problem either. It’s imperative that charities regain public trust in order to continue to serve as they do, and so far they’ve been making great strides.

Shifting beliefs isn’t easy and in some cases it’s impossible. Some people have deep rooted issues with the whole concept of charity because they believe the state should take responsibility or that people should fix their own problems.

You can read about why people don’t give to charity here

Like any change management it takes consistency, transparency, patience and listening. And it also takes compliance.

Compliant meaning

So what does compliant mean?

Basically, to comply means to obey the rules set by an authority.

In the case of fundraising, compliance has come to mean following the rules of the Fundraising Regulators Code of Practice. This applies to fundraisers employed by charitable organisations as well as third party fundraisers like Charity Link.

The code of fundraising practice

The code was established by the Fundraising Regulator in 2016, in response to the growing negative responses to charities and fundraisers.

The code intends to raise the bar on fundraising and create a new standard, thus improving both relationship between donors and charities and of course protect precious charity income.

The Fundraising Regulator works together with the Chartered Institute of Fundraising (CIOF); the professional membership body for UK fundraising, who aim to support fundraisers through leadership, best practice and education.

Although the code isn’t a legal handbook, its premise is to lay out the principles of decent, legal, honest, respectful and accountable fundraising. The expectation is that anyone collecting donations from the public knows exactly what is and isn’t acceptable.

If every fundraiser follows these rules, a new culture of respect and trust can develop between the general public and the fundraisers.

The code works on the basis of self regulation with intermittent observation from mystery shoppers.

Mystery shoppers are people employed by charities or the CIOF that present as members of the public while interacting with fundraisers.

They then collate a score according to correct behaviours which is shared with the Fundraising Regulator. If behaviour is deemed incorrect, penalty points and ultimately fines are issued to the charity or agency in charge of that fundraiser.  

Read more about how mystery shoppers work with fundraising

Being compliant is to action a whole number of required behaviours and actions whilst fundraising. That includes conduct, tone of voice, body language, spoken language, materials used, special awareness and character.

How does compliance benefit professional charity fundraisers?

Of course, the good that charities does far outweighs any bad, but nobody can deny some bad has happened.

While charities have gone to great lengths to improve transparency about their expenditure and operations, the fundraisers have a huge role to play.

As the customer facing front liners, it’s fundraisers that bear the challenge of changing public perception.

With every positive experience a donor has with a face to face fundraiser another step forward is made for the whole industry.  

But perhaps the best single way that fundraisers can rebuild the respect they deserve is to be compliant.

The framework upon which we govern fundraiser behaviour hasn’t changed – at it’s basic level it’s ‘do unto others as you’d have done to you’.

That means to do aim to do their work wholly without complaint. That means that even the most passionate anti-donor can’t grumble about an encounter with a fundraiser. That means that even the worst nay-sayers can at least respect the job that fundraisers are doing.

In turn the benefits to the fundraiser are a heightened respect for the hard work they do, a more trusting and willing public and greater earnings for the charities that are so important to them.

Non-compliant behaviour

There’s no doubt that non compliant behaviours harm the reputation of the whole charity sector as well as damaging the trust of donors.

We’ve put together ten of the most typical and obvious things a fundraiser might do that are a big no-no whilst at work.

The ten worst compliance offences for face to face fundraisers

Being impolite

It’s not good to be rude to anyone – but especially if you’re approaching someone to ask them for money. Fundraisers and their charities or agencies are penalised for being anything less than polite to a potential donor.

Criticise other people or organisations

Mentioning other individuals or organisations to manipulate someone’s decision to donate is another huge no for fundraisers. Not only is it unethical, it’s immoral to try to bad mouth or downplay the great work another charity is doing.

Encourage a donor to cancel or change an existing donation in favour of your own organisation

Every donor is precious to every charity. Trying to take a donor away from another charity isn’t okay and is against the code of fundraising practice.

Intrude on a person’s privacy

It’s important to ask questions to get to know a donor and what might motivate them to give, but you should never cross the line by asking for overly personal information or intrude in someone’s personal space.

Be unreasonably persistent or pressurising  

This one is especially poignant because it’s this type of behaviour that really puts the public off fundraisers. It’s important to be persuasive where appropriate but fundraisers should never be pushy.

Keep asking even after a person has indicated through word or gesture that they’re not interested

Objections are one thing, but no means no! If fundraisers have a reasonable response to an objection, they are feel free to put it forward, but if a donor has clearly said or indicated no, then the only correct response is a polite thank you for their time.

Mislead by leaving information out or by being inaccurate or ambiguous

Charities stories are already impactful and influential and powerful enough so there shouldn’t be any need to embellish the facts.

If fundraisers are caught misleading donors they can really do harm to the reputation and trust of both them and their charity.

Discriminate donors

In the spirit of equality and fairness, fundraisers should never make a judgement based on someone’s ethnicity, dress, sexuality, gender or status.

Exploit the trust, lack of knowledge or vulnerability of any donor

If someone is in a vulnerable state – such as under the influence of drink or drugs, mentally unwell or incapacitated in any way, fundraisers should not proceed with any sign up. This includes exploiting someone’s lack of knowledge.

Read more about behaviour in the code of fundraising practice here

Conclusion

Charity Link know all too well the pitfalls of non-compliant behaviour and pride ourselves on being the most compliant and ethical fundraising agency.

We’re continually pushing towards change of the way that fundraisers are perceived and do that through ensuring all of our fundraisers are trained in our award winning academy and ongoing mentoring.

We’re proud members of the Fundraising Regulator and work together with the Chartered Institute of Fundraising to continually improve the reputation of fundraisers and conduct.

Our goal is to reach a place where professional fundraisers are trusted, liked and appreciated for the work they do.

We believe that no donor should ever leave a conversation with one of our fundraisers feeling anything less than informed, positive and happy, whatever the outcome.   

If you’re interested in a career in professional fundraising, we encourage you to take a look at our jobs page. You’ll find a full job description, a list of current locations we’re hiring in and links to apply to our recruitment team.

This time in a few months, you could be doing a fantastic, diverse and rewarding career that you love!