Asking for Donations Without Pressuring Donors

Organisational culture will influence how fundraisers communicate with donors, meaning charities and agencies need to consider how they motivate and evaluate fundraisers’ performance, whilst prioritising supporter experience. This can be challenging as pressure to meet targets risks translating to pressure on donors. Although clear expectations are important, and targets can be a useful tool, charities and agencies should also ensure fundraising activities are aligned with their values.    

It’s important to remember that workplace culture is made up of values, expectations and actions at all levels of the organisation. Although these different areas might seem difficult to control, it can be influenced by frameworks that encourage fundraisers to act in-line with the organisation’s values, including:  

• Prioritising reaching audiences that share your organisation’s values 

• Investing in supporter experience to nurture donor loyalty 

• Recruiting fundraisers with the same values as your organisations 

• Developing transparent, collaborative and reciprocal partnerships

• Using feedback and insight from supporters to refine your fundraising - you can read more about this in the section: Developing fundraising messages 

• Routinely reviewing processes and procedures to ensure they are in your donors’ best interests e.g. vulnerable people's policies - you can read more about this in the section below 

• Regularly reviewing activities and identifying ways to encourage fundraisers to behave in-line with the organisation’s values e.g. mystery shopping 

Organisations can also adopt measures that directly support fundraisers, including:   

• Providing training to help new staff embed the organisation’s values in their work e.g. shadowing experienced fundraisers  

• Praising and recognising fundraisers who have demonstrated organisation’s values  

• Showing fundraisers the impact of the charity’s work e.g. site visits, inspiring talks, offering a chance to volunteer 

• Encouraging and facilitating positive interactions between agency fundraisers and charity partners  

Fundraisers also need to follow organisational policies and regulations to ensure they have the tools to support donors. You can read more about these below:  

• Treating donors fairly - an approach to fundraising and vulnerability 

• Safeguarding for fundraising managers  

• The Fundraising Code of practice - you can read more about this in the section: What do the rules say about encouraging donations? 

Whether a fundraiser is asking for a donation in person, on the phone or through written materials, the most effective fundraising message will resonate with a donor’s values. Charities therefore need to develop a strong understanding of what kind of message works best for their supporters. It’s possible that different messages will work better with different groups, meaning fundraisers should be clear on who they want to reach and why.  

There is a process that charities can adopt to develop their fundraising messages. Depending on capacity and resource it might not be necessary to follow every step for every fundraising activity:  

• Step 1: Using insight to identify what might be suitable for your target audience, such as focus groups or feedback from past activities 
• Step 2: Develop the messaging  
• Step 3: Test the initial messaging - this can be done with supporter groups, other fundraisers or other charity colleagues  
• Step 4: Refine the messages 
• Step 5: Carry out the fundraising activity 
• Step 6: Review the activity’s performance and supporter feedback and identify any areas that need to be changed  

The Fundraising Regulator

The Code of Fundraising Practice sets standards to ensure all fundraising is legal, honest, open and respectful. There are several standards that fundraisers must be aware of to make sure they are asking for a donation without putting pressure on the donor: 

All fundraising:

1.2.1. While reasonable persuasion is allowed, you must not fundraise in a way which is an unreasonable intrusion on a person’s privacy, is unreasonably persistent or places undue pressure on a person to donate. 
1.2.2. You must not continue to ask a person for support if that person clearly indicates – by word or gesture – that they do not want to continue to speak to you. You must end the conversation in a polite way. 

Working with Third Parties: 

7.3.1. You must make sure that any paid third-party fundraisers or commercial partners you work with to fundraise keep to the code. 

Marketing and communications: 

9.1.2. You must be able to show that you have taken all reasonable steps to make sure that communications are suitable for the people they are aimed at. 
9.1.3. Your marketing communications must not contain anything that is likely to cause serious or widespread offence. You must take particular care to avoid causing offence on the grounds of race, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation or disability. This will vary according to the context, type of communication, audience, product and commonly accepted standards of decency at the time of the communication. 
9.1.4. Your marketing communications must not contain anything that is likely to cause fear or distress without a justifiable reason. If you can justify it, the fear or distress likely to be caused must not be excessive. 
9.1.5. You must not use a claim or image that some people may find shocking merely to attract attention. If you use images that some people may find shocking, you should give warnings about this material. 
9.1.9. You must be able to justify how often you contact people, balancing the need to communicate with not overwhelming or bombarding people. 

Telephone fundraising: 

9.4.10. You must not make calls after 9pm, except to people who have asked you to call after this time. 
9.4.12. If the phone call is your first contact with a donor, you must ask if they are happy for you to contact them at that time. If they ask you not to call again, you must not do so.  
9.4.16. You must make clear that you are asking for financial or other types of support. 
9.4.17. You must not ask for a financial contribution more than three times during a fundraising phone call. 

Asking for a donation in-person: 

8.1.1. While fundraising, you must not: 

• act in any way that might reasonably cause members of the public to be or become startled or anxious; 
• act dishonestly or manipulatively, or deliberately try to make a potential donor feel guilty; or 
• act in any other way that a reasonable person might consider would damage the charitable institution’s reputation. This includes: 
  • putting undue pressure on members of the public to donate;  

8.1.2. You must avoid causing an obstruction, congestion and nuisance to the public. You must not deliberately block the path of members of the public. 
8.1.4. You must not suggest to any member of the public that the conversation you are attempting to start is not about money or that you are ‘not fundraising’. 
8.1.5. When asking for a regular gift, you must not suggest to any member of the public that it is ‘without commitment’. 
8.1.6. Unless this is authorised under an agreement with a private site, you must not approach members of the public who are: 

• seated, unless the seating is part of a charitable institution’s promotional stand; or 
• in queues, unless the queue is directly related to the fundraising activity. 

Asking for Legacies: 

15.3.4. In all visits to people who might consider leaving a legacy to you in their will, you must make sure that your fundraiser: 

• accepts the person’s right to invite other people of their choice to be present at any stage of the meetings; 
• reminds the person of the purpose of the visit; 
• makes sure that the meeting is carried out in a way and at a length that is sensitive to and suits their interests and concerns; 
• accepts the person’s right to end the meeting at any time, and does this promptly and politely; and 
• makes and keeps attendance notes of meetings and communications with the person on file. 

15.3.5. In all visits to people who might consider leaving a legacy to you in their will, you must make sure that your fundraiser does not act in any way that a reasonable person might judge to be threatening or as putting undue pressure or influence on the person. 
15.6.1. There are considerable risks to you in paying the costs involved in making a will which includes a legacy to you, so it is discouraged. But if you want to do this, you: 

• must not insist that you receive a legacy or that you are appointed as executor in exchange for paying for the will;  

15.7.1. You must respect the wishes of the testator if they tell you they don’t want to receive any further marketing communications from you (which would include any fundraising requests) or, wherever possible, if they ask for a certain level of contact. 

Advertising standards authority

Fundraising materials must also adhere to The Advertising Standards Authority Non Broadcast Code (CAP) and Broadcast Code (BCAP), which both set out rules to avoid putting pressure on the public.  

These include:   

BCAP code 

16.3.2. Advertisements seeking donations for, or promoting the needs or objectives of a charitable body must not suggest that anyone will lack proper feeling or fail in a responsibility by not supporting a charity. 
4.2. Advertisements must not cause serious or widespread offence against generally accepted moral, social or cultural standards. 

Particular care must be taken to avoid causing offence on the grounds of: age; disability; gender; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; and sexual orientation. 

4.10. Advertisements must not distress the audience without justifiable reason. Advertisements must not exploit the audience's fears or superstitions. 

CAP code 

4.1. Marketing communications must not contain anything that is likely to cause serious or widespread offence. Particular care must be taken to avoid causing offence on the grounds of: age; disability; gender; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; and sexual orientation. Compliance will be judged on the context, medium, audience, product and prevailing standards. 

Marketing communications may be distasteful without necessarily breaching this rule. Marketers are urged to consider public sensitivities before using potentially offensive material. 
The fact that a product is offensive to some people is not grounds for finding a marketing communication in breach of the Code. 

4.2. Marketing communications must not cause fear or distress without justifiable reason; if it can be justified, the fear or distress should not be excessive. Marketers must not use a shocking claim or image merely to attract attention. 

The Charity Commission 

Under the Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act 2016 (‘the Act’), charities must include statements on their fundraising in their annual report. Below are the areas these statements must cover: 

Section 13 ‘Fund-raising' of the Act 

       Annual reports: fund-raising standards information 

If section 144(2) applies to a financial year of a charity, the annual report in respect of that year must include a statement of each of the following for that year: 

• the approach taken by the charity to activities by the charity or by any person on behalf of the charity for the purpose of fund-raising, and in particular whether a professional fund-raiser or commercial participator carried on any of those activities; 
• whether the charity or any person acting on behalf of the charity was subject to an undertaking to be bound by any voluntary scheme for regulating fund-raising, or any voluntary standard of fund-raising, in respect of activities on behalf of the charity, and, if so, what scheme or standard; 
• any failure to comply with a scheme or standard mentioned under paragraph (b); 
• whether the charity monitored activities carried on by any person on behalf of the charity for the purpose of fund-raising, and, if so, how it did so; 
• the number of complaints received by the charity or a person acting on its behalf about activities by the charity or by a person on behalf of the charity for the purpose of fund-raising; 
• what the charity has done to protect vulnerable people and other members of the public from behaviour within subsection (2) in the course of, or in connection with, such activities. 

The behaviour within this subsection is:

• unreasonable intrusion on a person’s privacy; 
• unreasonably persistent approaches for the purpose of soliciting or otherwise procuring money or other property on behalf of the charity; 
• placing undue pressure on a person to give money or other property.