The head of the Fundraising Standards Board has played down a 67% rise in complaints about charity marketing – with direct mail up 54%, email 282% – claiming they are very small “in the grand scheme of things”.
Chief executive Alistair McLean points out that while FRSB members received 30,838 complaints last year, compared with 18,442 in 2010, the number of advertising and marketing campaigns has rocketed.
This year’s top most complained about media include direct mail on 14,903 (up 54% from 9,462 in 2010); telephone fundraising 3,892 (2,840); and email 1,173 (464).
However, McLean believes this must be offset against a rise in volumes. For instance, mail volumes rose over 20% from 146bn to 173bn, while the number of emails sent went up by 25% from 87bn to 109bn.
This means that direct mail complaints as a percentage of volume total just 0.009%, while for email the figure is 0.002%.
McLean said: “It is really important that the figures are taken in context because in the grand scheme of things the number of complaints is very small when compared with the steep increase in general fundraising activity.”
In 2011, there were also 2,927 data protection complaints. The large majority related to direct mail (59%), email (23%) and telephone fundraising (16%).
The report states: “Owing to the high volumes of activity in these three areas, it is perhaps unsurprising that they have generated the highest level of data protection complaints.”
