Charities are more effective than companies at getting the ears of MPs despite having smaller budgets, according to the think-tank nfpSynergy. It asked 159 MPs to respond to the statement that “charities are more effective at campaigning amongst MPs than companies” - 76 per cent said they agreed or strongly agreed, reports Third Sector (May 14).

Liberal Democrats are most responsive to charities' tactics, with 92 per cent agreeing with the statement.

MPs said that they liked the media opportunities offered by charities and felt that charities were better at engaging with constituents. One said they were less aggressive than companies, which “try to dictate rather than

persuade”. Steve Shaw, a parliamentary campaigner for Friends of the Earth, says: “NGOs are structured in a way that corporations aren't; they are bottom-up organisations, with members who can lobby their MPs, whereas profit-making organisations are top-down. They influence in other ways: an entity as powerful as Tesco talks directly to the minister.”

MPs are all ears for charity

Hard-pushed charities and better Westminster lobbyists than their deep-pocketed business counterparts

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The Warm Homes Act 2000 and the Climate Change Bill were examples of the influence campaigners wield over politicians, Shaw says. “Charities and NGOs are good at punching above their weight and MPs acknowledge that,” he adds.

But charities could do better. Over-reliance on early day motions and old-fashioned postcard campaigns and a failure to understand how MPs work were all cited.

“MPs dislike unselective scatter-gun tactics that waste resources,” Gemma Tracey, a nfpSynergy researcher, tells PR Week (May 16). Lobbying tips from MPs include: develop face-to-face relationships, offer focused briefings, highlight the impact of your campaigns on their constituencies and don't bore.

www.nfpsynergy.net

Fundraising should be transparent

Charities that approach people on the street for their names and addresses and contact them later for donations have been told to be more upfront about their intentions. This method of fundraising, called prospecting, has upset some councils which think that it is invasive. Prospecting is unregulated but Charity News Alert (May 14) says that the Institute of Fundraising includes it in its revised draft code of practice on face-to-face fundraising. The code wants fundraisers to “acknowledge the possibility of a subsequent financial commitment request” when they approach people.

Too much info

The organisers of the Charity Communications conference scored a spectacular own goal when the keynote speaker, Kelvin MacKenzie, a former Editor of The Sun, rounded on delegates then attacked them in print. First, according to Third Sector (May 14), he “railed against excessive charity salaries and crooked fundraisers”. Then, when a woman whose charity works with paedophiles asked for tips on putting a positive spin on its work, he went “apoplectic” and promised to write about them in his next column. Sure enough, he did. “I thought she was nuts,” he says.

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