More than 20 charities shunned Institute of Fundraising advice and signed up for free ad space in the final edition of News of the World (NotW), published this week.
Despite a number of leading charities – including The Salvation Army, the RSPCA, and Water Aid – declining to advertise in what one described as a toxic brand, the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) did accept a free full page ad, worth £61,000 at ratecard.
DEC is backed by many of the UK’s major good causes, including Save the Children, Oxfam, British Red Cross, and Age UK. Bizarrely a spokesman for Action Aid, which is also a DEC member, claimed it had turned down its own ad, adding: “I think the toxic brand would be a problem for our patrons.” The Action Aid logo was still displayed prominently in the DEC ad.
Other charities which took up the offer included Terrence Higgins Trust, Wellbeing for Women, Medicins sans Frontiers, SmileTrain and St John’s Ambulance.
A spokesman for the RSPCA said: “We understand a round-robin email was sent to all charities from the News of the World. A decision was made that the national RSPCA would not be advertising.” Meanwhile, Mike Foster, head of communications for Water Aid, said: “Given the nature of the controversy surrounding the News of the World, Water Aid considers it inappropriate to advertise in this newspaper.”
Several charities, including Barnardo’s, the Voluntary Services Organisation (VSO), and the RNLI, said they had not been approached.
On Friday, the Institute of Fundraising warned its members of the dangers of accepting the offer of free space. It released a statement which said: “The decision as to whether a charity ought to accept a donation or not should be grounded in its mission and policy objectives. A clear policy on the acceptance or refusal of donations is important for all charitable organisations. Such a policy needs to be acceptable to all those associated with the charity and agreed formally by a charities’ trustees.”
Meanwhile, it was business as usual in the News of the World “Fabulous” supplement, with ads appearing from Tesco, Boots, Superdrug, O2, Nivea, L’Oreal, Unilever, Nivea and Vodafone.
