With the Charities Act 2006 coming under review this year, it seems an ideal time for the Institute to review its codes of practice. Peter Lewis explains why it is important for fundraisers to get involved

Trust levels in charities are still paramount. One of the strongest supports to fundraiser’s work are the good reputations of many charities in the UK. For the fundraising community, this trustworthiness is encapsulated in the Codes of Fundraising Practice. These standards cover  all of the specialisms and principles which are key to everyday fundraising activity – they are the standards which fundraisers agree to keep to when they sign up to membership of the Institute.

The rules and regulations involved in fundraising successfully can sometimes be difficult to follow. Charity law is challenging to interpret and there is potential for change depending on the recommendations arising from the review of the Charities Act next year. In fact, it is a constantly changing landscape. While sometimes presented as the ‘rulebook’ of the sector, the Codes of Fundraising Practice fulfill a far more positive purpose of showing fundraisers a clear path to follow when carrying out fundraising, in all of its various forms. The Codes are tools which all fundraisers need to use to ensure that they are at the top of their game.

It’s vital that our standards are up to date, providing the sort of best practice guidance that will protect the activity of fundraisers through the remainder of this current recession and beyond to the next ten or 20 years. What sort of fundraising will be flourishing in the future? Where should we be focusing our efforts, and what sort of best practice ought to govern our actions now and as the profession progresses?

Have your say

I would encourage anyone with an interest in the fundraising sector to take part in our current Codes of Fundraising Practice review. This should certainly be a focus for anyone building a career in our sector. Since the founding days of the Institute, best practice and guidance has been fundamental and in time this has evolved into the Codes of Fundraising Practice we use today. So much has changed since then – donation methods and supporter expectations to name but two examples. It therefore seems high time for us to look again at the standards as a whole, to coincide with my taking on the role of CEO at the Institute and Mark Astarita, director of fundraising at the British Red Cross, becoming our new chair. The Codes have always been reviewed individually, on a case-by-case basis, but by looking at them again as a group we can make broader-based judgements on the standards which underpin the self-regulation system.

All suggestions for the Codes review will be logged and considered for viability by the Institute’s policy team and standards committee. What are some of the ideas we are currently considering? One proposal is to dispose of the ‘should’ rules in the Codes. These reflect the aspirations of fundraising – whereas the guidance fundraisers are required to abide by is classified with ‘must’ or ‘ought’. Should the Codes better reflect ‘fundraising in practice’; one idea of how this could be achieved is for the Institute to create charity-specific case studies to accompany the Code guidance. Should their format be made more standard and consistent?

The new charities which continue to be established in our sector; the increased professionalism which fundraisers use to appeal for donations and the pursuit of unrestricted funding by charities of all sizes means that one thing we can be certain of in the fundraising of the future is great competition. Our Codes will continue to guide the progress of fundraising in the UK through setting standards but it’s vital that everyone gets involved in the current review to help ensure the Codes provide all the support fundraisers require.

Peter Lewis is chief executive of the Institute of Fundraising  www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk

This article first appeared in Fundraiser magazine, Issue 13, January 2012