The Fundraising Regulator has announced plans to develop a self-reporting tool for fundraising incidents. This move comes after receiving responses to its Annual Complaints Report that showed a demand for a tool that would allow charities and other organisations involved in fundraising to report incidents that breach the Code of Fundraising Practice themselves.
What are the benefits?
The Fundraising Regulator hopes that the introduction of a self-reporting tool will streamline the process of reporting fundraising incidents. As it stands, there is no formal facility for organisations to report breaches of the Code of Fundraising Practice.
The “Self-Reporting” pathway will allow the Regulator to provide advice and guidance to users in a timely manner, building a closer relationship between organisations and the Fundraising Regulator.
The pathway will also hopefully increase reporting of said incidents, creating a larger pool of information, allowing the Fundraising Regulator to improve its understanding and ability to respond to incident and risks in the sector.
Concerns
In its announcement of these plans, the Regulator reassured users that it understands the present reporting requirements placed on charities, whether it be to the Charity Commission, ICO, Police or other bodies.
It has asserted that the self-reporting function does not seek to increase the burden on charities or duplicate reporting that already occurs, but rather to gain information in a co-ordinated fashion, and only where the regulators involvement would add value.
Next steps
The Fundraising Regulator plans to design criteria and guidance for self-reporting and build an expectation of what situations would self-reporting be appropriate for over the course of the next year. Further updates will be given as there is currently no timetable for this development.
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