Doorstep fundraising seems to be the quieter, less boisterous, older sister of street fundraising.
While the so-called ‘chuggers’ who collect direct debit sign-ups in high streets have been getting into trouble with the media and now face fines for breaking fundraising rules, those doing house-to-house collections have been quietly getting on with it in the background.
But there are signs that doorstep fundraising could be starting to emerge into the unforgiving glow of the media spotlight.
It certainly seems to be attracting the attention of desperate-to-regulate-everything local authorities.
The Institute of Fundraising recently appeared on BBC radio responding to Arun council’s plans to enforce “overbearing” new regulations on doorstep fundraisers.
It seems the councillors weren’t even responding to the concerns of residents.
According to the institute, local authorities are increasingly looking to introduce restrictive policies on doorstep fundraising http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/news/1147258/Institute-Fundraising-criticises-restrictive-doorstep-collection-policies-councils/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH. And the handful of councils mentioned, are only the ones that have approached the IoF, so the issue of may be a lot more widespread.
One suggestion from the sector is to bring in site management agreements, of the type currently negotiated by the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association, to cover house to house collections as we as street fundraising.
According to the association’s new chief executive, doorstep regulation is one of the issues currently being raised in the context of the self-regulation of fundraising as a whole.
The PFRA doesn’t currently regulate doorstep, but it does what is called “clash avoidance” for access to sites in London.
But as more charities turn to doorstep collections for direct debit sign-ups and clothing collections, it is likely that regulation will continue to be an issue.
Site management agreements appear to work well in areas where there were previously complaints and concerns about too many street fundraisers, so they could be a sensible way forward for doorstep fundraising – especially as they try to balance the rights of charities to fundraise with the right of public not to be put under too much pressure.