Fundraising practices Q&A
Media coverage and fundraising practices Q&A
Does Greenpeace UK use telemarketing and face-to-face fundraising agencies?
Yes – they are one of the most cost-effective ways of contacting people. We have to make best use of our supporters’ donations and using cost-effective methods is therefore very important. Greenpeace does not accept money from governments or companies so we rely completely on donations from private individuals to fund our work.
Do you use the telemarketing agency featured in the Daily Mail in July 2015?
No.
How does Greenpeace UK make sure the fundraisers aren’t pushy or exploitative of the elderly or vulnerable?
We only work with reputable agencies and have very clear standards they have to work to, including a clear policy on identifying people who may be vulnerable and ending the conversation politely. We do not make calls to under 18s and face-to-face fundraisers are not permitted to approach or sign-up people who are or appear to be under 25. We think that automatically excluding people over a certain age is potentially ageist, and take a case-by-case approach to deciding whether or not to include older supporters in fundraising campaigns.
The agencies we use have rigorous recruitment processes including random checks against the government’s Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) for roles that can be checked in this way. We also train all agency fundraisers to our own high standards, provide a clear code of conduct, monitor calls and conduct mystery shopping to check that all fundraisers working on our behalf are living up to these standards. All face-to-face fundraisers are required to wear clear identification only while they are working, and are also mystery shopped by the relevant regulatory body.
We respond to all queries and complaints and follow up to identify and fix the cause of any problems.
We have few complaints and regularly survey our supporters to find out how they feel about our communications. Overwhelmingly and consistently, the feedback is that our supporters are very happy with the style and frequency of all our communications.
Do you sell or swap the names/addresses/contact details of your supporters?
No.
Do you make cold phone calls?
No. We only make calls to people who have already signed up to our work/one of our campaigns, or who have told an agency that they are happy to be called by us.
Why haven’t you suspended these forms of fundraising?
We are confident, based on our on-going monitoring and independent audit, that the agencies working on our behalf are working to the high standards we require of them. We have reiterated the importance of being alert to identifying potentially vulnerable people and are keeping the situation under review.
Why do you call people who are registered with the TPS (Telephone Preference Service)?
We screen calls against the TPS register, unless we are calling people who have agreed to be contacted by us, in which case TPS screening is not required.