CHARITIES WILL be asked to sign up to a new code of practice today to boost transparency and bolster public confidence in the €500 million a year industry.
The code, which has been developed by the industry’s co-ordinating body Irish Charities and Tax Research, includes a new complaints and feedback procedure for the public and a monitoring body to ensure compliance. It also includes a “donor’s charter”, which creates a right to know about the causes for which a charity is fundraising and if its fundraisers are employees or third party agents.
“The Irish give more to charities than many of their international counterparts and open and honest fundraising is absolutely crucial to public trust,” said Sheila Nordon, executive director of Irish Charities and Tax Research.
The code of practice is voluntary but the charities body is hopeful most of the 5,700 charities operating in Ireland will sign up to it. It believes the successful implementation of the statement of guiding principles for fundraising will show the charity sector is capable of self-regulation and pre-empt any need for statutory regulation, which is possible in the 2009 Charities Act.
The code of practice applies to all fundraising including door-to-door and street collections, telemarketing, direct mail, emergency appeals, internet donations, raffles, church-gate collections and bequests.
There are five key elements to the new code of practice:
Charities commit themselves to the highest standards of good practice and ensure fundraising activities are respectful, open and legal;
a donor charter will be introduced, which provides a “bill of rights” to donors, including their right to know about the causes for which the charity is fundraising, how their donation is being used and if the fundraisers are employees of the organisation or third party agents;
a complaints and feedback procedure will be set up to enable people to notify the organisation of their wishes, comments and complaints, with all feedback to be responded to within a specified timeframe;
a monitoring group will be established, with a majority of independent members and an independent chairperson to actively monitor compliance with the code;
charities will produce an annual report and a statement of annual accounts, made publicly available every year.
Some of Ireland’s top charities are prepared to adopt the new code.
The Irish Cancer Society, Focus Ireland, the Irish Hospice Foundation and Western Alzheimer’s are leading charities that are also part of the implementation group for the code of practice.