FSB ruling raises concerns about how charities communicate to donors

A brain tumour charity was careless in the way it addressed donors and did not deal with a complaint properly, according to a ruling from the Fundraising Regulator.

A ruling published by the regulator shows that Brain Tumour Research received complaints from two donors claiming it had mislead donors “through numerous false statements on its website”, that the charity may have gained money through deception.

They said they were told the charity would spend 100% donations on brain tumour research, but only 46% of its income was spent on research.

The rest went on administration, fundraising and campaigning and awareness-raising. After complaining to the charity, the donors said they were dealt with inadequately.

“We have seen no evidence to conclude that the money raised by Brain Tumour Research is not being used to achieve it charitable objectives,” the Fundraising Regulator said in its report.

“We have also concluded that the charity did not intentionally set out to deceive potential donors. However, in order to be compliant with the code it should have taken greater care to ensure that all messages to possible donors did not have the potential to mislead.

“Our investigation also found that the charity did not address the complainants’ concerns appropriately.”

Since receiving the complaint, the charity had reviewed its website and Facebook page to remove any “unintentional ambiguity.”

It said that it is also currently in the process of reviewing third party websites to remove any historic wording.

The regulator governs fundraising in England Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland has its own watchdog, the Scottish Fundraising Standards Panel.