Business Plan 2024/25

Contents

• Introduction
• Themes
• Strategic objectives
• Priorities for this year
• Resources

Introduction

This is the third business plan that falls within the scope of our Strategic Plan 2022 – 2027. The strategy sets out our view of how we will deliver the effective regulation of charitable fundraising over the next five years. 

Themes

Our regulation is risk, evidence and outcomes based. There are cross-cutting themes running through our objectives, which together will guide us to regulate charitable fundraising effectively. These are:

• Innovative: We will keep abreast of digital and wider social developments and how these may shape fundraising into the future. Our regulation will evolve accordingly.
• Proactive: We will continue to develop our proactive approach, strengthening the work we do to ensure compliance with the code, in addition to complaints handling. We will prioritise proactive regulation where we identify issues that may cause harm to the public or damage to the reputation of charitable fundraising even if those issues have not attracted complaints.
• Intelligent: We will use our data more intelligently to support the development of the code and our compliance work. We will collect and share fundraising data from others to inform our regulatory priorities and to share knowledge and learning. 
• Collaborative: We will bring in views from across the fundraising sector and the wider public so that we remain a thought leader in fundraising. We will create new information sharing opportunities to ensure that fundraisers and the public have a greater voice in developing our policies. As part of this, we will strengthen relationships with other regulators and government.

Strategic objectives

All our work is delivered in line with the following strategic objectives:

1. To deliver intelligent fundraising regulation that protects the public.
2. To inform members of the public about principled fundraising.
3. To support fundraising organisations to thrive.
4. To be a highly effective organisation.

This year’s budget allows us to deliver our core business as usual activity, alongside key 2024/25 projects. This includes:

• Continuing to offer advice on high standards of fundraising through our code advice service, available either online or over the phone.
• Managing complaints casework at about 100 complaints per month (1,200 per year). Including investigating of matters of regulatory concern arising from complaints or other intelligence.
• Maintaining Fundraising Levy and registration activity at present levels, with the additional capacity to process up to 70 new applications per month for registration and increasing numbers of annual renewals.
• Operating the Fundraising Preference Service (FPS) at present or at increased levels of activity.

Priorities for this year

The priorities for this year are as follows:

To deliver intelligent fundraising regulation that protects the public 

We will continue to grow our proactive regulation function in particular following up on the work of our first Market Inquiry into subcontracting in face to face fundraising. Alongside the market inquiry other regulatory projects generated through our intelligence gathering and analysis will be delivered. 

Working proactively depends on close relationships and intelligence sharing with other bodies. We will continue to develop our collaborative relationships with existing and new regulatory partners to develop and share intelligence and work together on projects.

Key deliverables

• Collaborate with regulators and sector bodies to deliver the recommendations outlined in our market inquiry into subcontracting in face-to-face fundraising.
• Enhance our intelligence gathering ability through a review of our internal data, and the introduction of predictive and generative AI tools where appropriate.
• Continue to analyse the intelligence we collect to identify trends and areas for additional scrutiny.
• Deliver proactive regulatory projects that encourage consistent compliance across particular segments of the sector. 
• Ensuring our programme of proactive regulatory projects listens to and works with the sector, for example through targeted workshops to ensure support and advice is meaningful and tailored.
• Complete recruitment in the Proactive Regulation and Projects function.
• Develop collective regulation through close working with other statutory and non-statutory regulators where remits intersect.
• To complete the retender of the Fundraising Preference Service, to ensure it continues to be fit for purpose and offers value for money.

To inform members of the public about principled fundraising

Our research shows that the existence of the Fundraising Regulator increases trust charitable fundraisers. 

It is our role to make sure that whatever fundraising is taking place, standards remain high, and the public continues to be protected. 

We will continue to operate an open and accessible complaints service that offers assistance to complainants and charitable institutions in getting them resolved.  We will also continue to provide a way for the public to manage their communications with charities through the FPS.

Key deliverables

• Continue to develop additional public facing materials to help the public and donors understand fundraising and make informed decisions about which causes to support.
• Carry out a review of our website to make it easier to navigate for charities and members of the public. 
• Continue to work with other regulators and relevant bodies to provide joint public messages to further emphasise and increase the reach of our safer giving campaigns.
• Further developing our public engagement via marketing to include additional streams for our ‘look out for the badge’ and FPS campaigns.
• Roll out a digital badge that registered organisations can use to demonstrate their commitment to high standards of fundraising and to help the public to give safely. 

To support fundraising organisations to thrive 

We will conclude our review of the Code of Fundraising Practice (the code) to ensure it remains up to date by reflecting changes in legislation, technology, and fundraising behaviour.

Following engagement and consultation with key stakeholders in autumn 2024, we will publish an updated code which provides an accessible, proportionate and flexible regulatory framework that protects the public while avoiding undue constraints on charitable fundraisers.

Alongside the work we are doing to update the code we will continue to develop our plans for increasing the scope of the information on charities complaints data that we publish. 

Key deliverables

• Publish an updated Code of Fundraising Practice, alongside a suite of training and guidance resources to help fundraisers comply with the new framework.
• Publish the Annual Complaints Report, the last time we will do so in the current format.
• Continue to work on our proposals to improve the way we report on complaints data from charities so that it is easier for organisations to submit information, and data is more interactive and representative of the wider sector.
• Publish timely summaries of completed investigations highlighting areas of code breach and recommendations for improvement.
• Review charities compliance with the fundraising reporting requirements of the Charities Act 2016. 
• Strengthen engagement with the fundraising sector in Wales and Northern Ireland.

To be a highly effective organisation

Changes to the levy and registration fees agreed after the engagement exercise that took place last year will be introduced from September 2024. These changes will ensure that we are able to deliver the regulation required now and for the future. We will continue to carefully monitor our expenditure to ensure we are offering value for money and make efficiencies where possible. We are keenly aware of how we are funded, the pressures on everyone and we take our budgeting responsibilities seriously. 

We are conscious of the wider societal and political contexts in which we operate and our position as a regulator. This position means that we take matters such as modern slavery, sustainability, and equality, diversity, and inclusion, seriously and work to make continuous improvements.

Key deliverables

• Continue to develop our work on EDI to ensure that it remains at the forefront of our policies and decisions.
• Engage with the non-charity sector on proposed changes to the registration fee following changes already agreed for charities in 2023/24. 
• Implement the levy and registration fee increases agreed in 2023/24.
• Implementing improvements to our CRM system to reflect the development of our internal processes and to improve efficiencies.
• Undertake recruitment for new board members as existing members reach the end of their terms of office.
• Develop mechanisms to allow fundraisers to have a greater voice in the development of our policies.

Resources

Charity and non-charity registration scheme

The Fundraising Regulator’s scheme of voluntary fundraising regulation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is mainly funded by the Fundraising Levy. The levy amounts to about 88% of the regulator’s income and is paid by the charities that conduct the most fundraising activity. Around 2,000 charities are currently within the scope of the levy, which is based on a sliding scale of payments for all charities spending £100,000 or more on fundraising per year.

The rest of our income comes primarily from a registration scheme for smaller fundraising charities and non-charities (such as commercial businesses, Community Interest Companies and public interest bodies) that engage in charitable fundraising. Smaller charities spending less than £100,000 a year on fundraising pay £60 a year to register with us. Non-charities pay registration fees on a sliding scale according to their fundraising turnover.

From 1 September 2024 the fees charged for levy and registration for charities will increase. Details of the new scale of fees are on our website.

All organisations that commit publicly to meeting the Code of Fundraising Practice, and pay the relevant registration fee (currently just under 6,500 bodies), can display the Fundraising Badge on their fundraising materials, and are encouraged to do so. 

Budget for 2024/25

Our budget for 2024-25 is £3.7million which represents an increase on last year’s forecast expenditure of £0.4 million. The budget increase comes from additional staffing in key areas, investment in modernising our core business systems (website and CRM) and general price rises.

We anticipate that our total income will be around £3.4 million with £2.8m forecast to come from the levy and the remainder from small charity and non-charity registrations,  

In order to ease the burden of the levy increases these have been spread over two years. This means that in 2024/25 we will be operating a budget deficit for the second consecutive year and continuing to reduce our reserves. Our reserves will fall to less than six months of operating costs by September 2025. In the following year we plan to make a small surplus again following the second phase of increases in the levy fees which will increase our reserves.

Staffing

Our commitment to offering value for money means we look to regulate in a way that is as efficient and effective as possible. This includes making sure our workforce remains skilled and supported to do their work. 

Our staffing costs constitute a substantial part of our expenditure in 2024/25 at about 60%. We only intend to add one extra member of staff this year, in our new Proactive Regulation & Projects function, we are otherwise at full complement at 36. Staff work in five teams – pro-active regulation and projects; casework; communications and corporate services; finance and procurement; and policy. 

Increase in the budget for proactive regulation and projects reflects the fact that team will be at full complement this financial year and will be supporting the increased project AI developments. This year projects will continue for the code legal review and Salesforce development as well as planning the changes to the Annual Complaints return. 

We work hard to ensure we have an effective engaged workforce who have the necessary skills and equipment to do their jobs. This year we will be undertaking a detailed staff survey to collect feedback on all aspects of the working environment and to measure engagement and inclusion levels.

Budget summary 

Budget summary by Strategic Objective