Peter Lewis
Directors of fundraising from charities that use the technique will be invited to a private meeting in London on 23 July
The Institute of Fundraising will hold a ‘summit’ to discuss face-to-face street fundraising in the light of recent negative media coverage.
Directors of fundraising from charities that use the method and who are members of the IoF will be invited to the private meeting in London on 23 July.
The move comes after a recent investigation by The Sunday Telegraph newspaper found fundraisers from the agency Tag Campaign potentially breaching the IoF’s Face-to-Face Activity Code of Fundraising Practice during a text donations pilot campaign it ran for Marie Curie Cancer Care.
The summit is intended to review the public’s experience of face-to-face fundraising, its financial importance and whether there are steps that could be taken by the sector, or by the institute, to ensure compliance with high standards.
Peter Lewis, chief executive of the IoF, said in a statement: "The media has recently highlighted cases where potential donors have been approached by fundraisers who seemingly fail to meet the exacting standards that we insist on. This has led to a wider debate about the value of face-to-face fundraising as a technique at all."
A spokesman for the IoF could not say how many directors of fundraising would be at the summit. It will not include representatives from street fundraising agencies or from the self-regulatory body, the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association.
"We have decided to limit the summit to include only those directors of fundraising who are members of the IoF so there can be full and frank discussions in an ‘in-house’ atmosphere," he said.
"After the summit, we will be looking at what actions we need to take and fully involve the wider fundraising community."
