Breast Cancer Now has carried out a review of its fundraising practices after a vulnerable man was encouraged to make regular donations.

The review had been called for by the Fundraising Regulator after its investigation into a case where a vulnerable man had been approached by door-to-door fundraisers working for agency APPCO UK, who were raising money for Breast Cancer Now.

The man’s wife complained to the charity, and subsequently the regulator, after discovering donations had been taken from the couple’s joint account over several months following the fundraisers’ visit.

These payments had been made after husband had signed up to make regular Direct Debit payments by the door-to-door fundraisers, despite him being vulnerable and not having the “capacity to provide the authorisation needed to sign up to the donations”, found the regulator.

The charity has since cancelled the Direct Debit and refunded donations already made.

However, as it investigated the incident Breast Cancer Now found that a “system error” meant the complainant’s husband was not sent a letter informing him donations would be taken from the couple’s account once he had signed.

The charity has “acknowledged that this mistake meant that the complainant did not discover the donations were being taken sooner”, according to the regulator.

The regulator had asked Breast Cancer Now to “review its existing regular giving process to minimise the occurrence of such errors that could prevent the issue of its advanced notification letters not being sent”.

In reaching its decision the regulator found that APPCO UK was in breach of its code after the vulnerable man was targeted as “given the level of training we know they would have received, the fundraiser should have been aware of his vulnerability and should not have signed him up to donate”.

But it is satisfied with the charity’s handing of the complaint and steps taken to rectify the issues. It also did not find any systemic issues with the charity or the agency.

It added: “We also recommended that the charity reviews the training its third-party fundraisers receive to ensure that there is no contradictory local guidance undermining its policies or fundraising practice, with particular reference to potential donors who may be in vulnerable circumstances.

The charity is also asked to review its complaint handling to embed good practice “demonstrated by its managers, while also learning from any errors and identifying gaps in knowledge”.

'Thorough review'

A Breast Cancer Now spokesperson said: “The safety and wellbeing of everyone engaged by our fundraisers is our top priority, and we take any complaints made extremely seriously.

“We accept the recommendations in the Fundraising Regulator’s report regarding this complaint and have conducted a thorough review of our face-to-face fundraising practices to ensure all agency fundraisers working on our behalf fully adhere to our high standards and follow the code of conduct at all times.”

---