Telephone fundraising

Charities sometimes call people to ask for their support, or to update current supporters on their work.

For some people, the telephone is their preferred way to hear from charities they support. Calls give people an opportunity to ask questions about the charity and its work.

There are rules about how charities must act if they call you. This is because charities want to make sure that people feel good about donating to them. They’ve agreed to work to these standards to make sure that the public are treated respectfully in fundraising.

• Charities mustn’t call you if you are registered with the Telephone Preference Service and haven’t given them your permission, either directly or through a third party.
• Charities mustn’t call you if you’ve previously asked them not to.
• Charities mustn’t call you after 9pm.
• Charities mustn’t make a request for support more than three times in a call.
• Charities mustn’t put undue pressure on you or be unreasonably persistent during the call.
• Charities must end the call if you make it clear you want to.
• Charities can only text you if you’ve provided your details to them, either directly or through a third party.

If you have any concerns about telephone fundraising, it’s really important that you report them to the charity. They will want to know if you are unhappy so that they can avoid the problem happening again. Read more about how charities are addressing concerns about fundraising.