Charities have faced unprecedented scrutiny over their fundraising practices following the death of 92-year-old Olive Cooke, one of Britain’s oldest and longest-serving poppy sellers. Jo Curry, executive director of Changing Lives, asks if charities have gone too far

2015 was not a vintage year for charities and it’s no wonder public trust in the sector is probably at an all-time low.

Fundraising practices were put under the media microscope after widespread public concern over the death of 92-year-old Olive Cooke, one of Britain’s oldest and longest-serving poppy sellers.

The pensioner took her own life and her family described how she had been receiving repeated requests from charities for donations with up to 267 letters a month as well as regular phone calls.

Story after story followed of aggressive fundraising tactics, financial mismanagement and personal information ending up in the hands of scamming companies after being sold on by some charities.

Changing Lives supports the most vulnerable people in society – we literally pick people up off the streets and support them into homes, into work, into meaningful relationships, off addictions and into security.

It is difficult to gain sympathy from the public for the people that we support – the homeless, addicts, offenders, sex workers. So it is hard enough for us to raise money for our services without the added barrier that the general public are getting fed up with the behaviour of some charities.

The incessant chugging, cold calling and direct mail are placing charities in the ‘nuisance’ category as far as the public are concerned, who would rather be approached by a dodgy PPI compensation specialist than a chugger bounding over to you in the street and befriending your direct debit details out of you.

Enough is enough. The public image of charities is being undermined which is why we welcome the report this week from Bernard Jenkin’s Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee that said charities had one last chance to put their house in order or else legislation would force them to.

The report found that fundraising is increasingly competitive and a large charity can spend more than £20 million a year on trying to bring in funds and the bosses of named and shamed charities were described as either “incompetent or wilfully blind”. It’s doubtful if the sector’s standing can sink any lower.

Good, decent charities that play fair have nothing to worry about - but they have had enough.

For far too long the debate around self-regulation has been dominated by those that engage in chugging and want to carry on with it – but the impact of lack of trust has a longer term effect on the rest of us.

This comes at a time when the squeeze on Government funding continues and charities like ours will be looking to members of the public to support us to continue serving those who are in greatest need.

Last year Changing Lives made an ethical fundraising pledge:

• We do not engage in chugging

• We do not knock on doors asking for donations

• We do not telephone people at home

• We do not share donor details

• We treat supporters with respect and gratitude

We encourage all charities to adopt these standards – it’s not difficult.

At the very least we would like to see chuggers banned from the high streets, with limited licenses granted to collectors who have local connections or special merit.

Public sector cutbacks are making things so difficult for charities like ours – and we are having to make greater efforts to reach out to the public for help so that we can continue to assist 14,000 vulnerable people this year.

We are trying to get over the lack of sympathy some people may have for our clients and service users by taking inspiration from something our Chief Executive Stephen Bell said at our last staff conference.

He talked about being brought up in a loving home where he dreamt of being a cricketer and he said: “A lot of the children we work with, their dream is not to see their mam suffer domestic violence, to not see their dad drink himself to death, to not see their parents inject heroin.”

From that speech came our #MyDream campaign using images supplied by our staff from their family albums. Headlines include ‘She didn’t dream she’d have to hide her bruises’ and ‘He didn’t dream of sleeping rough and taking drugs’.

All our clients were children once. They are all someone’s son or daughter and they never dreamt they’d be homeless or an addict or a domestic abuse victim.

Please don’t let the aggressive behaviour of other charities get in the way of helping local people whose lives, for one reason or another, have taken them down a path where none of us want to tread.

Changing Lives are based on Team Valley and provide services across the North and Midlands. If you would like to help then log on to www.changing-lives.org.uk and click on the Donate link.