It’s encouraging that 73% of respondents to our research survey would be more confident supporting a charity displaying the badge (when told what the badge represents)*. 61% of respondents were also shown to think more positively of a charity displaying the badge and half (50%) reported they would be more likely to support a charity they had not heard of before if it was displaying the badge.
Registered organisations can display the Fundraising Badge – the logo that says ‘registered with Fundraising Regulator’ – on their fundraising materials to show the public they are committed to legal, open, honest and respectful fundraising in line with the Code of Fundraising Practice.
Sector support for voluntary fundraising regulation increases
We are mostly funded by an annual Fundraising Levy on charities spending £100,000 or more on their fundraising. We again saw a 98% collection rate for the 2022/23 levy year. The consistently high payment rate of the levy over the past four years shows that regulation is now an established part of the fundraising landscape.
6,056 charities have registered with the Fundraising Regulator, a 7% increase on the year before. This demonstrates continued strong support for the voluntary regulatory model of fundraising in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Smaller charities are increasingly recognising the value of voluntary regulation, as the regulator saw a 11% increase in their registrations.
We saw an 8% increase in the number of complaints we received in 2022/23, with 1,137 incoming cases. 20 charities also used our self-reporting pathway, with the number of self-reports increasing in the last quarter of the year in response to a news story that identified issues with a sub-contracted fundraising agency carrying out door-to-door fundraising.
The report discusses preparations for several key projects as part of our strategic plan. This includes our code review, levy review, and the development of our new proactive regulatory function – which has since led to us launching our first market inquiry into the use of subcontractors in fundraising.
“The charitable fundraising sector continued to face challenging conditions as the cost-of-living crisis and significant global events continue to impact the landscape, and this in turn affects the way we need to regulate the sector. I would like to commend charities and their partners for their hard work in the face of such challenges.”
Lord Toby Harris, Chair
Copies of other historic reports are available on request, please contact us with any general enquiries at admin@fundraisingregulator.org.uk.
*This was updated to include (when told what the badge represents) on 1/05/24)
