The number of households that do not want to receive telemarketing calls from charities or anyone else has now reached 14.5 million. (Third Sector).

Delegates at the recent Institute of Fundraising’s conference were told by Colin Lloyd, chairman of the Fundraising Standards Board that 200,000 households a month were now signing up to the Telephone Preference Service. Lloyd estimates that within five years telephone fundraising from the UK will no longer be a viable option. However charities fundraising from abroad are not regulated.

The decline in the number of people willing to be sold to over the telephone has been greatly accelerated by the shoddy and ignorant treatment of subscribers by large organisations, in particular those using automatic dialling technology and creating millions of “silent” or unconnected calls.