This Chartered Institute's Action Plan sets out our commitment to safeguarding in fundraising, summarising our progress against a series of prevention and reporting strategies. You can see our progress against the Action Plan in detail here.
If you have any safeguarding concerns, please be aware that you can report those anonymously using the reporting tool Talk to Spot.
This Action Plan was developed following a Learning Review, conducted by a HR consultancy, which reviewed the Chartered Institute's complaints processes and handling of complaints related to sexual harassment within its membership. The Action Plan takes a thematic approach and is split into three themes of activity – culture change, safeguarding and governance of professional standards.
The executive summary of the Learning Review is available here. All recommendations from the Learning Review were accepted by the Board in March 2021, and formed the basis of our Action Plan for safeguarding fundraising. We have added further steps to that plan, and all these actions have now been implemented or partially implemented.
This webpage summarises our progress against that plan.
In the sections below, we outline the principles that guide our approach to safeguarding, the work of our Equity, Diversity Inclusion and Professional Conduct committees.
We approach safeguarding with three key principles in mind. They are:
- Do no harm first. The Chartered Institute and the profession has to be a place where everyone is safe.
- Believe all those who come forward. Make it safe, simple and supportive if people disclose. Make that process a fair and balanced one.
- Listen, learn and work to share progress openly, honestly and transparently. We know that this is vital to rebuild trust and also to create systemic change.
We are committed to culture change across all parts of the Chartered Institute and our fundraising community. Our Equity Diversity and Inclusion committee leads on this mission, supporting us to make the profession, and us as a Chartered Institute, more equal, diverse and inclusive, and to provide challenge and advice to the Board and staff team.
All fundraisers must be safe wherever they work, network or learn. Sexual, racial or any other form of harassment and abuse are never acceptable, and every single instance must be treated seriously and with respect and sensitivity.
The Professional Conduct committee drives forward the Chartered Institute’s ambition to have the highest possible standards of professional conduct within the fundraising profession across the UK.
The committee have the responsibility of continuing to develop the Chartered Institute’s Member Code of Conduct, the Code of Behaviour for its events, have oversight of all complaints and disciplinary policies and processes relating to professional conduct, and set up disciplinary and appeals panels as needed.
You can find out more information about the work of the committee here.
If you’d like to talk to the Chartered Institute about any aspect of our work in these areas or have any questions or concerns, please feel free to get in touch with our Head of Professional Conduct at michelew@ciof.org.uk.
You can also raise an issue, submit feedback, or register a complaint anonymously at any time through our confidential reporting tool Talk to Spot.