Fundraising complaints rise 10%

Direct marketing techniques continue to dominate the hall of shame when it comes to charity fundraising complaints, according to the Fundraising Standards Board’s annual report, with the total number of moans rising by nearly 10%.
Direct mail continues to attract the biggest number of gripes, at 12,474, and although nearly double the second place telephone fundraising, mail concerns have fallen from 48% in 2011, to 40% of all complaints in 2012.
There were also 2,325 complaints about data protection, representing a tenth of all complaints received.
FRSB chair Colin Lloyd, former DMA president, said: “With so many charities reporting no complaints at all and the overwhelming majority of issues being resolved at Stage 1, the charity sector as a whole continues to perform well.  But the sector must not be complacent. Looking across the full data set, there are a number of fundraising activities and behaviour that the public is unhappy about.
“Fundraisers must take great care in what they do and how their actions may be perceived. Often it is a fine line between communicating the cause and need for funding effectively, while ensuring that members of the public do not feel uncomfortable with the way fundraisers go about it.
“With the majority of charities that fundraise on the doorstep reporting complaints about behaviour, practitioners are advised to listen carefully to consumer concerns, address the issues and, where relevant, adapt accordingly.”

Top 10 Complaints by Fundraising Method
	Complaints	Fundraising Volume	% Charities using Fundraising Method that Report Complaints
Addressed direct mail	12,474	165,866,207	64%
Telephone fundraising	6,379	11,505,202	65%
Doorstep face-to-face fundraising	5,555	43,617,913	83%
Clothing collections	1,910	148,801,675	42%
Email fundraising	1,887	137,478,598	35%
Outdoor events*	1,024	1,559,087	19%
Street face-to-face fundraising**	820	29,984,760	65%
Unaddressed direct mail	747	116,383,124	46%
Lotteries*	656	44,598,177	35%
Private site face-to-face fundraising*	435	346,908	38%