Charity mailing moans soar 90%

Direct mail complaints to charities soared by 90% in 2010 despite a 30% fall in mail volumes, according to the industry watchdog, which is warning the third sector to whip its data into shape or face a further backlash.
The Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB), chaired by former DMA president Colin Lloyd, revealed that, overall, charity marketing sparked 18,442 complaints, with direct mail accounting for 53% of the total. Mail complaints have soared from 5,081 to 9,462 in 2010, despite mail volumes falling from 200 million to 146 million.
The top three villains – direct mail, telephone (2,840 complaints) and doorstep face-to-face fundraising (2,360) – accrued the highest number of complaints, although the watchdog is quick to point out that, as a proportion of fundraising volume, complaint levels in each of these areas remained “modest”.
Street fundraising attracted 485 complaints, up from 312 the previous year, but yielded the highest complaint level to fundraising volume at 0.17%. However, the measurement unit is for donor sign-ups rather than solicitations made.
Data protection and ‘poor’ data (where contacts are incorrectly addressed or deceased) together led to around 3,000 complaints (one sixth of all complaints recorded).
Of the 1,200 recorded data protection complaints, the large majority related to direct mail (46%), email (29%) and telephone fundraising (23%). Data protection complaints fuelled more than three quarters (76%) of all email complaints. A further 2,000 complaints were attributed to poor data used in direct mail and telephone fundraising campaigns.
Across all fundraising methods, 515 complaints related to legacy fundraising complaints (up from 156 in 2009). The majority of these complaints related to direct mail (80%), TV advertising (12%) and telephone fundraising (6%).
FSRB chief executive Alistair McLean said: “Complaints concerning charities’ use of data serve as a warning to all fundraisers. In particular, supporters are more concerned about the use of their email addresses than fundraisers may expect. This is likely linked to an increase in email fundraising activity as well as ‘blanket’ emails from both charities and businesses. Charities and suppliers alike must strive to source and maintain better data for donors and potential supporters, and to make timely and appropriate use of that data.”