Researchers' Toolkit

This toolkit has been produced as a quick guide for anyone researching F2F fundraising and the work of the PFRA, and has been distilled from the material on this ePolitix site. There is more detailed information on the PFRA's website – http://www.pfra.org.uk/. However, if there is anything at all that you cannot glean from this site, PFRA is only too happy to talk to you in person.

Contact our Head of Policy, Toby Ganley, at toby@pfra.org.uk or call 020 7401 8452.

For media enquiries, contact Ian MacQuillin, Head of Communications, ian@pfra.org.uk, 020 7401 8452.

• What is F2F fundraising?
• How successful is F2F?
• What is the PFRA and what does it do?
• How is F2F licensed?
• Best practice requirements for fundraisers
• Supporting materials

What is F2F fundraising?

• Face-to-face (F2F) fundraising is the solicitation of a regular gift (usually monthly) to charity, usually by a direct debit or, much less frequently, a standing order. It also covers 'prospect fundraising', whereby fundraisers on the street obtain contact details and permission to get in touch at a later date.
• It is usually done on the street (where fundraisers are sometimes referred to as 'chuggers') or on the doorstep, but can also be done at private sites (such as shopping centres or music festivals) or even in the workplace.

More information
What is F2F?

How successful is F2F??

• PFRA members secure an average of around 600,000 new Direct Debits to charities each year through street and door fundraising.
• 740,000 donors were signed up in 2008/09.
• 660,000 new donors have been singed up during 2009/10, with some charities not yet having reported their full amounts.
• About 70 per cent of these new donors in 2009/10 were recruited through doorstep F2F fundraising.
• PFRA estimates that at least 18 per cent of all current regular givers were recruited using some kind of F2F method, who make a combined monthly donation of £10m to charity (£120m a year).
• Charities usually recoup £2.50-£3 for every £1 they spend on F2F fundraising, sometimes more.
• Some charities rely on F2F as their main method of 'donor recruitment', whereas for others it is just one part of the 'fundraising mix'.

More information
How much does F2F raise for charity
Why do charities use F2F

What is the PFRA and what does it do?

• The Public Fundraising Regulatory Association is the self-regulatory body for all types of F2F fundraising.
  
  More information
  How the PFRA regulates F2F
  
• PFRA has as dual role as a regulator in being the bridge between councils and charities practising F2F. The twin facets of this role are:
  
  1.enforcing best practice professional standards
  PFRA enforces the Institute of Fundraising's code of practice through a mystery shopping programme, complaints procedure and accreditation process for members.
  
  More information
  Institute of Fundraising code of practice
  How PFRA ensures compliance with the code of practice
  
  2.negotiating and then regulating equitable access for fundraising charities. We do this through 'site management agreements' (SMAs) with local authorities.
  
  More information
  How PFRA works with local authorities

• The PFRA was formed in the summer of 2000 as an off-shoot of the Institute of Fundraising and became an independent entity in October 2003.
• PFRA is a membership body, and currently has 105 members, including some of the biggest charity brands, such as the British Red Cross, Oxfam and NSPCC. We represent charities conducting about 95 per cent of all F2F activity.

More information
PFRA members

The PFRA has five strategic objectives:

1. Definitively establish the efficacy and preferability of self-regulation for F2F fundraising.
2. Continually improve professional standards across F2F.
3. Devise and implement initiatives that increase understanding of and reduce misperceptions about F2F, championing F2F wherever and whenever necessary and appropriate.
4. Identify, implement and nurture initiatives that ensure the sustainability of F2F as a fundraising and engagement medium.
5. Support the F2F community in a way that facilitates new opportunities for F2F, and grows the use of F2F as a medium, whenever and wherever appropriate.

More information
PFRA Annual Report 2010/11

How is F2F licensed??

Street F2F

• Cash collections for charity in England and Wales require a local authority licence under the Police, Factories etc (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1916 (except in London where the police are the licensing authority).
• This Act talks specifically about money. Legal opinion commissioned by the PFRA says this does not cover Direct Debits and so street F2F does not require a council licence under the 1916 Act.
• Opinion as to whether 1916 applies to Direct Debit fundraising is divided. We always try to sway the opinion of those councils who maintain that 1916 does apply and will not license F2F fundraising.
  
  More information
  How street F2F is licensed
  
  Doorstep F2F
  
• Charity collections conducted door-to-door require a licence under the House-to-House Collections Act 1939.
• There is no ambiguity in this act whether F2F is covered as it stipulates that a licence is required for collections of "money or other property".
• National exemption orders are available from the Office for Civil Society for charities that fundraise extensively, meaning they do not need to obtain individual council licences. Forty-three charities hold exemption orders, including several PFRA members.

More information
How doorstep F2F is licensed

Charities Act 2006

• The Charities Act 2006 contains a unified licensing regime bringing together Direct Debit and cash street collections, meaning that Direct Debit fundraising would require a council licence.
• However, the relevant part of the Act – Part 3, sections 45-66 – has NOT been implemented, and will not be implemented before the scheduled review of the the Act in 2011.
• The PFRA's role would remain relatively unchanged under Part 3 of the Charities Act 2006 – it allows for far more F2F activity, and self-regulation will continue to be important. Until the 2006 regime is implemented, the PFRA will continue to regulate F2F.
• The PFRA will seek to contribute as much as we are able to the 2011 review of the Act to share our knowledge, experience, and expertise to enhance the regulation of charitable fundraising.

More information
Charities Act 2006

Scotland and Northern Ireland
Scotland and Northern Ireland both have separate licensing regimes.

More information
F2F in Scotland and Northern Ireland

What are best practice requirements for F2F fundraisers?
All face-to-face fundraisers working on behalf of PFRA member organisations must abide by a code or practice drawn by the Institute of Fundraising (IoF).

The IoF code contains sections on:

• Considering F2F activity
• Conduct of fundraisers/agents
• Planning an F2F campaign
• Identification and management of operating locations
• After the F2F activity has taken place.

PFRA is currently working on an 'interpretation' of the code that will provide guidance on some aspects of the code that are open to interpretation. One rule PFRA has already implemented is the 'Three Step Rule'.

This stipulates that fundraisers may only take a total of nine steps in attempting to engage a passerby, three towards, three backwards and three alongside. Fundraisers are not permitted to walk alongside a person beyond these steps under any circumstances.

Another important piece of best practices is the 'solicitation statement'. At the point a person confirms that they are going to sign a Direct Debit mandate, the fundraiser is required by law to 'disclose' that they work for a professional fundraising company, how much the company is being paid (the 'notifiable amount') and how this fee was calculated.

More information
Institute of Fundraising Code of Practice on F2F Fundraising
Three Step Rule
Solicitation Statement

Supporting materials

A full account of our policy activities and relationships with local authorities during 2009/10 is contained in our annual report, which you can download from:

PFRA Annual Report 2009/10

To get a flavour of the history and development of F2F since it first appeared in the UK in 1997, download PFRA's 10th anniversary brochure from:

PFRA 10th Anniversary Brochure

Printed copies of both publications can be obtained by contacting Toby Ganley at the PFRA.