In an interview in The Daily Telegraph, the chairman of the Fundraising Regulator, Baron Grade of Yarmouth stated that a third of all complaints about charities stem from 'junk mail' complaints concerning "the accompanying enclosures sent to charities". These include free pens, badges and Christmas cards. These are often sent out by charities to try to increase the donations from members of the public.
The former BBC chairman, CEO of Channel 4 and executive chairman of ITV had initially stated that he found it strange that "anybody is complaining about getting a free gift".
However, he now agrees with donors feelings, stating "They are saying 'why are they spending this money, that could go to the charity' – which actually is a really smart public response."
The Fundraising Regulator was founded in January 2016 as the independent regulator of charitable fundraising. It was set up In its first 3 months of being established, it received an average of 20 complaints a day to be removed from mailing lists. Last year, 16,000 of its 42,000 complaints were about direct mail.
The Fundraising Preference Service was set up to allow people to demand that charities stop sending them fundraising messages by phone, text or email. However, if the mail is not addressed to an individual then the Post Office is obligated to deliver it.
In the article, he threatened repeated complaints from any particular charity could lead to them being brought "... to the attention of the Charity Commission or the Information Commissioner's Office."