Cold call charities told to clean up their act
Big four are savaged over phone tactics and asked: Where are your morals?
CHARITIES could be hauled before MPs to explain themselves after their aggressive cold- calling tactics were exposed by the Mail.
British Red Cross, Oxfam, the NSPCC and Macmillan were accused of using ‘boiler room’ call centres to ruthlessly hit fundraising targets.
Politicians and campaigners are now demanding charity bosses ‘clean up their act’.
The calls come after the Mail revealed household name organisations are hounding people on the Government’s official ‘ no- call’ list, the Telephone Preference Service.
The charities also stand accused of taking donations over the phone from those with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Fundraisers are ordered to be ‘brutal’ with potential donors, a Mail reporter discovered while working undercover in a call centre.
Minister for Civil Society Rob Wilson said the practices exposed ‘ could not be tolerated’. He added: ‘This is indefensible and immoral. It is time to clean up the sector and restore public trust.’
Baroness Joan Bakewell, who was the Government’s Official Voice of the Older Person, said the revelations showed ‘morality’ had gone ‘completely out of the window’. She said call centres used by the charities ‘measure their success by how many people they can hoodwink’.
Information Commissioner Christopher Graham said the charities had been left with ‘big questions to answer’ after the Mail’s investigation.
Charities were ordered to ‘clean up their act’ last night after the Mail revealed the aggressive cold- calling tactics they use to raise cash.
the British red Cross, Oxfam, the NsPCC and Macmillan were savaged over their use of ‘ boiler room’ call centres to secure donations.
the four charity giants were revealed to be hounding people on the Government’s official ‘no-call’ list, the telephone Preference service.
But the Mail also told how they were willing to take donations over the phone from those with dementia and alzheimer’s – and how fundraisers were ordered to be ‘brutal’ with potential donors.
Last night, in a blunt assessment, Baroness Joan Bakewell said the revelations showed that ‘morality’ had gone ‘completely out of the window’ – and said charities should stop using the call centres.
Minister for Civil society rob Wilson said the practices exposed ‘could not be tolerated’ and warned charities they must ‘clean up’ their practices.
‘this is indefensible and immoral,’ he said. ‘i have made absolutely clear that charities and fundraisers must take their
‘Something has seriously gone wrong’
responsibilities to vulnerable people and the wider public more seriously.’
Baroness Bakewell – who was the Government’s Official Voice of the Older Person – said older people were being ‘hoodwinked’ into giving to the charities.
‘the ingenuity with which people in these call centres manage to get money out of the vulnerable is absolutely breathtaking,’ she said. ‘they measure their success by how many people they can hoodwink into helping the charity.
‘the charity feels absolved … because it has handed over the responsibility. and along the line, morality is completely out of the window.’
Meanwhile, information Commissioner Christopher Graham said the charities – some of the most respected in Britain – had been left with ‘big questions to answer’ after the Mail’s investigation.
he said ‘something had seriously gone wrong’ when such prestigious organisations were resorting to ‘boiler room operations’ to hound the vulnerable.
in an undercover investigation, the British red Cross, NsPCC, Oxfam and Macmillan were all caught making calls to households registered with the tPs.
Caudwell Children – a charity for sick and disabled children – was also caught hounding people on the tPs in a cold-calling campaign.
the charities do this by exploiting loopholes in the law, which was set up to stop people being hounded by unwanted calls. Confusion is caused by the fact that there are four bodies regulating the sector. the institute of Fundraising sets basic standards which are then imposed by the Fundraising standards Board.
this body also handles com- plaints. serious complaints about charities are passed on to the Charity Commission, the industry’s statutory regulator. Meanwhile the information Commissioner’s Office is supposed to make sure charities and businesses handle people’s per- sonal data responsibly and legally. Dozens of those contacted the Mail yesterday told how – despite being registered with the tPs – they were still being phoned at home. and hundreds took to internet messaging boards to express their frustration at being unable to stop the constant appeals.
Former Oxfam boss Dame Barbara stocking admitted she was ‘worried’ about the behaviour of her charity. she said there was an ‘ongoing moral debate, if you like, about how far it is right to go.’
Meanwhile, MPs threatened to haul the charities’ fundraising bosses before parliament to explain the ‘ scandalous’ techniques exposed by the Mail.
some even called for regulators to strip charitable status from those that did not mend their ways.
tory MP Conor Burns has written to the head of the Charity Commission calling for an ‘urgent and robust’ inquiry in light of the Mail’s findings.
he is also demanding charity fundraising bosses are held to account by being made to give evidence before MPs. he said: ‘extorting money from people who have opted out of getting cold calls or have
mental incapacity or dementia is appalling abuse.
‘These corporate charity bosses are in it for cash, not compassion.’
labour MP Paul Flynn said he and other MPs on the Public administration and Constitutional affairs Committee – which oversees charities – are ‘very angry about the situation’. he said the charities had risked their good name by adopting ‘exploitative’ fundraising techniques.
he added: ‘They fall for the easy money that comes from chuggers and direct phone calls.’ he said the committee had ‘powers to sub- poena people to demand they appear before us.’
Tory MP Michael ellis said it was ‘unacceptable’ for charities to use ‘ hot house conditions and Wall street tactics to pressurise potentially vulnerable people’.
Paul Green, spokesman for saga, said organisations involved in the practices exposed by the Mail should lose their charitable status. he added: ‘a charity’s high ideals do not excuse low moral standards in fundraising.’
William shawcross, chairman of the Charity Commission, said: ‘This story raises very serious con- cerns. Public confidence in the selfregulation of charity fundraising requires that serious allegations of unscrupulous practices are investigated swiftly and thoroughly.’
Marilyn Baldwin OBe, founder of anti-scams charity Think Jessica, told iTV’s Good Morning Britain: ‘The techniques that they’re using are very similar to boiler room scams. Charities have got to start backing off and must stop selling donor lists to other charities.’
all of the charities involved have vowed to investigate the Mail’s evidence as a matter of urgency, while Oxfam has suspended all telephone fundraising activity. a spokesman for the British Red Cross said the charity was ‘deeply concerned’ by the claims and would be investigating them.
she said the charity believed it was obeying the law on the TPs but will be ‘ seeking clarification’ from the iCO and institute of Fundraising. a Macmillan spokesman said: ‘We take the claims made by the Daily Mail seriously and are looking into these as a priority.’
Tim hunter of Oxfam said: ‘Oxfam fights for the rights of poor and vulnerable people across the world. We would never exploit an individual’s vulnerability in our marketing.’
The NsPCC said: ‘any suggestion of inappropriate activity is deeply worrying and we would want any concerns to be raised with us immediately so that they can be quickly addressed.’
The British Red Cross spokesman added: ‘Our policies relating to contacting individuals who are registered with the Telephone Preference service have been based on guidance published by both the information Commissioner’s Office and the institute of Fundraising.’