It’s been a year since the voluntary sector, reeling after a media scandal involving “vile and disgusting” tales of older and vulnerable donors being aggressively targeted by charity fundraisers, pledged to clean up its act. A string of stories – including the harassment by fundraisers of Olive Cooke, a 92-year-old volunteer poppy seller for the Royal British Legion, and the sale by charities of personal data belonging to Samuel Rae, an 87-year-old man with dementia, exposing him to conmen who tricked him out of £35,000 – led to calls for tough new controls on fundraising standards and practices.
Under threat of statutory intervention, the sector – which sheepishly admitted it had taken its eye off the ball and that the scandals had been a “wake-up call” – came up with a voluntary scheme, funded by the 50 biggest fundraising charities and designed to stamp out bad practice and restore public trust. Charities that fell foul of the new code of conduct would be named and shamed.
Ministers accepted the proposals, drawn up by Sir Stuart Etherington, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations’ chief executive, and the Fundraising Regulator was born. The person put in charge of setting up the new body – much to the sector’s surprise – was the veteran TV executive and former chairman of both the BBC and ITV, Michael Grade.
Interviewed in his private Mayfair offices ahead of his speech on 22 September at the Media Trust’s annual reception, Lord Grade – he was made a Conservative peer in 2011 – said he did not need much persuading to take on the role.As a self-confessed “news junkie” he’d followed last year’s charity scandals with interest and with some sympathy for the charities caught up in them. “I thought to myself, as a trustee for over 30-40 years with dozens of charities, I don’t think I ever worried about how we got the money … and I think that’s been typical of most trustees who go into these things with wonderful commitment. The whole question of the ethics of fundraising has never really been an issue.”
Soon after Etherington’s report was published, Grade was sounded out by Whitehall to chair the Fundraising Regulator. “They needed to get things done fast, they needed someone with a bit of profile and a bit of experience who could get the thing on the road as soon as possible, and my name came out of the hat. I knew immediately I wanted to do it.”
Nine months later, Grade reports that the new regulator is up and running, with a full team and funding in place, and taking calls from the public. Since it opened in July, it has received 174 complaints: 19 are being investigated, including the latest scandal involving alleged abuses by employees of the Neet Feet fundraising company, revealed by the Sun newspaper in July. Its first adjudications are expected in a few weeks’ time. It is a “promising start”, he says.
In the wake of the Cooke and Rae scandals there was much talk of “tough regulation”, but Grade appears more conciliatory. “The key for us is to draw the line between making sure that charities are not inhibited in their ability to raise money for the causes they care about, and we all care about, while … making sure that there isn’t an erosion of public confidence. It only takes one horrible case and the whole sector is tarred with it, whether they like it or not.”
Charities and trustees need to raise their game, not because the Fundraising Regulator will deal out harsh punishments, but because they will suffer if they don’t – in terms of diminished public trust and the implied threat of heavier statutory regulation. “I’m against statutory regulation and I hope it will never be necessary, but that is in the hands of the charities. If they behave, by and large, then we can maintain a voluntary, independent regime.”
He promises a fair and speedy complaints process that will, with the support of the charities concerned, resolve cases in weeks rather than months. His biggest fear is that charities will treat hearings as judicial battlegrounds. “My plea to charities is: ‘Can we please keep lawyers out of it.’ We hope our processes are going to be fair and open and balanced. It is not in our interest to have a kangaroo court. The last thing we need is for m’learned friends to get involved and suck hundreds of thousands of pounds out of the sector.”
The trickiest part of the regulator’s remit is likely to be the fundraising preference service, an arrangement that will allow donors to register to opt out of receiving any unsolicited fundraising communications from charities. It is expected to come into force later this year. Charities are worried that this could choke off a crucial source of income for them at a time when their finances are ever more precarious.
Grade argues that this is unlikely. The important thing is that people regain a measure of control over their private space, he says. “I deeply resent being cold-called. [Charity salespeople] knock on my door at 8 o’clock at night … [I say to them] ‘Go away!’ However good the cause, it’s not what you want. You want to have control over your life and therefore if we can show people they can get control, that is a good thing for the health of the charitable sector long term.”
Grade says he agreed to stay for a year and will leave the regulator in June 2017. How will he know if he has succeeded? He wants complaints levels to rise, and then over time reduce, as charities’ fundraising practice improves. “My vision of success [for the regulator] is that there is no business coming in. That’s success, really, isn’t it? That we have people sitting around with nothing to do. That would be a wonderful success.”
He breaks into smile. “It’s never going to happen …”
Curriculum vitae
Age 73.
Family Married with three children (two from a previous marriage).
Education St Dunstan’s College, London.
Career 2016-present: chairman, Charities Fundraising Regulator; 2014-present: co-owner, the Grade Linnit Company; 2014-present, director, Land Rover BAR; 2011-2015: director, WRG Group; 2011–14: lay member, Press Complaints Commission; 2010–12: non-executive chair, James Grant Group; 2009: member, Panel on Fair Access to the Professions; 2007–09: executive chairman and chief executive, ITV; 2004–06: member, board of governors, BBC; 2000-present, chairman, Pinewood Group; 2000–04: chairman, Index on Censorship; 1991–2000: director, then chairman, then chief executive, First Leisure Corporation; 1994–96: member, the National Commission of Inquiry into Prevention of Child Abuse; 1988–97: chief executive, Channel 4; 1986–87: director of programmes, BBC TV; 1984–86: controller, BBC1; 1981–84: president, Embassy Television; 1973-81: deputy controller programmes, then director of programmes, London Weekend Television; 1969-73: joint managing director, London Management and Representation; 1966-69: theatrical agent; 1960-66: trainee journalist, then sports columnist, Daily Mirror.
Interests Entertainment, sailing.
