Annual Return

We ask our members to complete an annual complaints return in order to monitor the total level of fundraising complaints across the sector, to highlight common issues behind those complaints and to enable us to feed relevant information back to the organisations that drive and shape fundraising standards and best practice guidance.

All the information you provide on your annual complaints return is kept strictly confidential and we only ever publish results for the membership as a whole.

If you have questions about the annual complaints return then read our Frequently Asked Questions.

If you'd like to see how we define the fundraising categories then please read our Glossary.

These are the results from the 2010 annual return:

Fundraising Method
 Volume of Activity Complaints Complaints as % of Volume
Addressed direct mail 146,241,806 9,462 0.006%
Telephone 11,031,790 2,840 0.026%
Doorstep face to face
 31,266,863 2,360 0.008%
Gaming activities (incl raffles, lotteries & other prize draws)* 69,287,287 972 0.001%
Street face to face* 284,168 485 0.171%
Email 86,877,830 464 0.001%
Outdoor events (incl challenge events)* 1,290,373 437 0.034%
Online advertising 1,342,960,084 398 0.000%
Unaddressed direct mail 111,181,406 246 0.000%
TV advertising 1,350,616,310 175 0.000%
Volunteer led 310,998 105 0.034%
Cash collections* 2,110,317 103 0.005%
Press advertising & press inserts NEW 647,929,402 98 0.000%
Fundraising from business (corporate) 69,296 94 0.136%
Prospect face to face** NEW 332,002 79 0.024%
Social activities* 211,856 65 0.031%
Major donors 257,975 44 0.017%
Trust & foundations 64,483 9 0.014%
Radio advertising 57,690,641 3 0.000%
Outdoor advertising NEW 110,632,830 3 0.000%
Total 3,970,647,717 18,442 0.000%

*Volume figure denotes the number of donors or event participants rather than the number of ‘asks’ as with other categories

** Volume figure denotes the number of people who agreed to receive further information from the charity rather than the number of ‘asks’ as with other categories

A full copy of the UK's annual complaints report can be viewed or downloaded in PDF format.

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