OSCR seeks views on fundraising regulation in Scotland

As part of a review commissioned by the Scottish government, the regulator wants charities and other interested people to fill in a short survey

The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator is asking for views on how the new system of fundraising regulation in Scotland is working.

After the negative media coverage of fundraising in 2015, the Scottish charity sector opted not to come under the remit of the new Fundraising Regulator in England but instead set up its own Scottish Fundraising Standards Panel in December last year.

The Scottish government has now commissioned an external review of the system, a commitment that was made when the panel was launched.

As part of the review, the OSCR, which provides secretariat services for the panel, has invited charities and people to give their views on the system by completing a short survey.

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Last week, Alison Elliot, the panel’s chair, revealed it had received no complaints worthy of investigation since it was set up.

In a statement, the OSCR said completing the survey would “help ensure fundraising regulation in Scotland remains fit for purpose”.

The survey is open until 20 October and can be found on the OSCR website.

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More than 1.7 million views for Guide Dogs video in first four days

The First Blind Dates video has become the charity’s most successful for video views

A video created to launch Guide Dogs’ annual fundraising and awareness week has been viewed more than 1.7 million times in its first four days.

First Blind Dates was published onto the charity’s Facebook page at 10am on 4 September, since when it has been shared more than 1,500 times and liked 7,700 times. The charity said it had been the most successful video in terms of views it had ever run.

The video shows four guide dog owners meeting strangers for the first time to tell their real-life stories, revealing the challenges of living with sight-loss and the difference guide dogs have made to their lives. It launches Guide Dogs Week, which runs from 7 to 15 October and was created to inspire people to raise funds under the hashtag banner of #moveitformoney.

“It’s the most successful in terms of video views we’ve run,” Liz Marshall, marketing communication manager at Guide Dogs, told Third Sector. “We wanted a video that made a real emotional connection, especially among those who are not yet Guide Dogs supporters.

“It feels like we are inspiring people and it’s doing its job really well. People are going on to the campaign’s landing page and our stats are saying that they are staying there for six minutes each. That’s phenomenal.” She added that user engagement with the video had so far been high at 4 per cent.

Marshall said that although there had been a paid-for advertisement strategy for the video, which is also on YouTube, there had been success through organic promotion, helped primarily by Guide Dogs’ celebrity supporters and digital influencers who have encouraged sharing of the video. These have included Female First, wich interviewed one of the video’s participants, Pretty 52, and the marketing specialist site The Drum.

Marshall said the charity’s approach this year had been completely different from that of 2016, when #moveitformoney began.

“#Moveitformoney was launched last year, but our communications were more traditionally focused,” she said. “We’ve found since that digital is the most successful way to reach a new audience. It gives us an opportunity to learn what works and engages people. We’ve promoted the video principally on Facebook: it’s our most successful social media channel and we get more engagement with supporters.”

That doesn’t mean  Guide Dogs is leaving traditional communications behind, as Marshall stressed.

“We will reflect on the campaign once we’ve done it,” she said. “It’s really important we evaluate it well, take some learnings from it and feed those into new activities.”

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Mixed views emerge on Rob Wilson’s time as Minister for Civil Society

Wilson yesterday lost his Reading East seat to Labour on a surprising night for UK politics

Voluntary sector leaders have given mixed verdicts on Rob Wilson’s time as the Minister for Civil Society, after he lost his seat in yesterday’s general election.

Some praised Wilson’s handling of a difficult few years for the charity sector during his time in post, but another said his tenure had proved “a little bit disappointing”.

Wilson lost his Reading East seat to Labour last night in a dramatic election result that saw the Conservatives lose their overall majority in parliament.

Wilson, who became Minister for Civil Society in 2014 after the resignation of Brooks Newmark, had been the MP for Reading East seat since 2005 and had a majority of 6,250 going into the election.

But a 16-percentage-point swing to Labour meant he was defeated, with Matt Rodda becoming the new MP for the constituency.

Neil Cleeveley, chief executive of the local infrastructure body Navca, said that although Wilson’s tenure did have some positives, his time as charities minister would be regarded as a “little bit disappointing” overall.

Cleeveley said: “The focus he has had on small and medium-sized charities has been very welcome.”

But he added that this focus did not translate into useful measures to help local charities provide services to their communities, particularly when cuts to local authority budgets were taken into account.

“There has been a bit of an over-focus on the contractual relationship between charities and public services,” Cleeveley said.

More creative thought and the use of collaboration and grants would have been welcome in terms of helping smaller charities become involved in the provision of public services, he added.

On Twitter, Joe Saxton, co-founder of the consultancy nfpSynergy, welcomed Wilson’s departure.

Another person on Twitter reminded Wilson of his comment after the 2015 election, when he told somebody who asked him about homelessness not to be a “bad loser”.

But others paid tribute to Wilson’s work over the past three years, with many noting his role in leading the government’s response to the media backlash against charity fundraising practices in 2015.

Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, said Wilson would be remembered as a minister who had led reforms to fundraising, such as the introduction of the Fundraising Regulator.

“He was instrumental in helping to achieve a sensible solution to the problems in fundraising that came to the fore in 2015,” said Etherington, who led the review of fundraising self-regulation and whose proposals Wilson accepted. “Through this, I believe his legacy will include helping to strengthen trust in charities.”

Etherington also praised Wilson’s interest in small charities and hoped his successor would continue to work on the relationship between charities and public services.

Vicky Browning, chief executive of the charity chief executives body Acevo, thanked Wilson for his work during a “difficult period for charities”.

She said: “Once a new government is established, it should look to fill this brief as soon as possible. Charities and social enterprises are the backbone of our society and ought not to be left long without representation at the highest level of government. We look forward to working with the new Minister for Civil Society once appointed.”

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John Low, chief executive of the Charities Aid Foundation, thanked Wilson for his hard work as Minister for Civil Society, and praised his role in setting up the National Citizen Service and his support for the #givingtuesday campaign.

“We wish him and his family all the best for the future and look forward to continuing our positive working relationship with his successor,” Low said.

A statement from the Small Charities Coalition thanked Wilson for his “engagement on issues facing small charities” and expressed hope that work on making public sector commissioning work for small charities would “form the foundation for improving public sector contracting”.

Other charity sector figures paid tribute on Twitter to Wilson’s time in office:

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