The Fundraising Regulator has criticised a street fundraiser for their conduct in approaching an autistic shopper last year.

The fundraiser approached the shopper, who had clearly said they did not wish to be spoken to, and then laughed when a nearby member of the public made an insulting comment about them, found the regulator.

Its investigation details that the fundraiser was working for Zen Fundraising, which was raising money for SOS Children’s Villages UK.

The incident took place in April last year when the complainant was walking through a shopping centre and answered “no” when they were approached by the fundraiser.

The complainant said the fundraiser continued to address them, which led to the altercation involving another member of the public “which left them feeling unsafe”.

The regulator found that the fundraiser had breached its code as the autistic complainant had said they did not want to be approached.

“We also found that some of the fundraisers’ comments, and the laughter at the offensive remark by a passer-by, breached the code sections around politeness,” added the regulator.

Its investigation included reviewing footage from the complainant’s body-worn camera, that they wear for protection.

Zen Fundraising has said it has updated its training “so that fundraisers can better identify and take into account the needs of potentially vulnerable individuals”, according to the regulator.

While the regulator has criticised SOS’s decision not to review the complainant’s camera footage as it addressed his complaint, it found that it had not breached its code around complaints handling.

It also found that there was no breach in terms of discrimination against the complainant on the basis of disability.

“We found that SOS had taken reasonable steps to investigate the complaint and that it had remedied the breaches by apologising to the complainant and retraining the fundraisers to improve their awareness of vulnerability,” said the regulator.

“We recommended that SOS review its general training programme to ensure that its fundraisers are properly equipped and skilled to interact with people who have disabilities.

“We also recommended that it update its procedures to ensure that it considers all appropriate evidence, including video recordings, when investigating complaints.”

Charity accepts findings

A spokesperson for SOS said: “We accept the findings of the Fundraising Regulator’s investigation and have implemented the recommendations, including updating training to ensure that fundraisers can better identify and take into account the needs of potentially vulnerable individuals, and ensuring that we review video evidence where appropriate.

“As mentioned in the investigation summary, the Fundraising Regulator did not find SOS Children’s Villages or Zen Fundraising, who were contracted on our behalf, to have acted in a manner that was discriminatory and found that we handled the complaint acceptably, taking reasonable steps to investigate the complaint, and seeking to remedy the situation by apologising to the complainant and retraining fundraisers.

“We have stringent contracts in place to ensure agencies contracted to undertake fundraising on our behalf abide by the Code of Fundraising Practice, and we undertake thorough training of all fundraisers and monitoring of performance, including spot checks and shadowing visits.”

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