How did it come to this? Over the past two months some of the best-known UK charities, on the front line of environmental and social justice, have become connected to unethical fundraising practices. It’s not surprising we’re in a spin.
The story broke after the death of an elderly charity giver. Before her death, Olive Cooke had revealed to local media that she had received 260 pieces of charity mail and would no longer answer her landline due to repeated requests for donations. Since Olive’s death the near-daily bombardment and insufferable levels of “asks” suffered by many elderly and vulnerable people from and on behalf of charities has been laid bare.
Responses have varied, from Friends of the Earth immediately writing to supporters to try to gauge what they found appropriate (the irony being that this involves another mailshot) to Save the Children’s promise to abandon cold calling and trading supporter data.
But singling out good and bad charities is a red herring. According to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk, the body that upholds our data privacy rights) the charity industry has collectively blurred the definition of activities like cold calling. Many charities now use third-party commercial fundraising organisations, including those that trade in our data. So it is the sector as a whole that must clean up. To that end the Fundraising Standards Board (frsb.org.uk) has produced eight recommendations, including limiting the number of times a charity can ask for money in one phone call, limiting the number of contacts each year with donors and doing more to ensure that fundraisers do not target elderly and vulnerable people.
If you’re feeling besieged by fundraising requests, you can download a firm but fair “don’t contact me” letter produced by The One Show, where I’ve reported on this story. It gives the charity 28 days to comply before a complaint will be lodged with the Information Commissioner’s Office. In addition charities have committed to stopping their fundraisers from approaching properties displaying “No cold calling” signs by 1 September.
We need to re-establish a proper relationship between givers and charities, and this is an opportunity to get everything in the open. Like the man said: “Sunlight is the best of disinfectants, electric light the most efficient policeman.”
Green crush
“The challenge is always to make people take the first bite,” Christine Spliid says of her new insect protein bar made from roasted and pulverised crickets. “It has a nutty buckwheat taste,” she goes on. “As the insects have been made into flour, the yuck factor goes away.” Spliid began to question the environmental impact of a meat-rich diet last year when she travelled around Cambodia and was amazed to discover so many people eating a variety of insects in order to get their necessary protein, iron, magnesium and amino acids. As well as crickets, the Crobar includes nuts, dates and seeds and is free from added sugar, gluten and dairy. Available in Cacao & Chia and Peanut Crunch varieties. Bread and crisps are next in the pipeline. (croprotein.com)
Greenspeak: zooshare {zu: shair} noun
Local investors have bought into a biogas plant that converts manure from animals at Toronto Zoo into renewable energy for the Ontario grid. They have been promised a 7% return for seven years.
