Supplementary evidence from Oxfam in response to questions raised at the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee on Tuesday 8th September 2015 (FCS 34)
This paper and accompanying documents (not published) provides the follow up information requested by the Select Committee both at and following the evidence session on 8th September in charitable fundraising.
Oxfam GB’s supporter database is primarily segmented by Supporter Type based on a supporter’s means of engaging with Oxfam. There are 10 Supporter Types and 4 status types for each. The Supporter Types are:
Within each Supporter Type, supporters can have 1 of 4 status types, these are detailed below:
Overall 55% of supporters are women and 40% are men, and we do not know the gender of the remaining 5%. In addition, we hold the ACORN geo-demographic profiling information on our database that identifies the characteristics of households by postcode. Oxfam GB has approximately 1.7 million active supporters and these break down into the following age brackets:
18 to 24 6%
25 to 34 11%
35 to 44 13%
45 to 54 15%
55 to 64 12%
65 to 74 9%
75+ 5%
Unknown 28%
Accompanying this paper are 8 contracts for agencies that we have worked with over the last year. In addition, we have provided a copy of our supplier questionnaire which all suppliers to Oxfam GB are required to complete as part of our pre-contracting due diligence. We have also provided the 2 contracts that exist with specialist recruitment agencies that help Oxfam GB recruit staff for our in-house face to face fundraising team. Please note that commercial terms have been redacted from the contracts.
In this section we detail the monitoring of contracted agencies. Where relevant, we have made a distinction between “mystery shopping” carried out directly by Oxfam GB staff and that reported to Oxfam by the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association (PFRA) which carries out mystery shopping activity across all charities using face to face fundraising.
Go-Gen
Street Academy
Listen:
|
|
|
|
|
NTT
|
|
|
Angel
TaDa
Home Fundraising
Future Fundraising
During 2014/15 Oxfam spent £1,095,798 with the agency, GoGen. This includes the face to face engagement activity that identified people who were then contacted by telephone.
During 2014/15 Oxfam spent £810,510 with the agencies Listen/Shelter. The campaign was in 2 parts with the telemarketing aspect being carried out by the agency Listen Ltd and the street engagement stage by Street Academy, the face to face team operated by the charity Shelter.
Further telemarketing activity with other agencies used by Oxfam totalled a spend of £1,476,196. Therefore, overall Oxfam GB spent £3,382,504 on telemarketing and related activity. Based on results, we expect this investment to generate at least £10 million over the long term, giving a minimum return of 3:1, and higher in respect of many donors who have stayed and are still with us, so their lifetime value can’t be calculated.
We would like to make a small clarification in relation to Mark Goldring’s evidence to the Select Committee in response to the question from Ronnie Cowan MP regarding the Living Wage. Mr Goldring stated:
“We require all suppliers to pay the living wage wherever they are working and most are working on the basis of salary rather than commission. In some cases there is an element of performance bonus but it is always a small minority of the overall payments.”
For the sake of clarity, the detail of Oxfam GB’s position with regard to the Living Wage is that all staff directly employed by Oxfam GB are paid at least the Living Wage. As an accredited member of the Living Wage Foundation, we also work with our fundraising agencies and fundraising suppliers to ensure that their employees are fairly remunerated, too, though membership of the Living Wage Foundation is not yet a formal requirement for all such agencies and suppliers.
The level of remuneration we expect our fundraising agencies to pay is a living wage in-line with the Ethical Trading Initiative's Base Code, and currently the overwhelming majority of fundraisers working on behalf of Oxfam for our agencies are earning the living wage, at least after their initial training/probationary period. In a few cases, particularly involving part time staff, the agency has not yet reached this level for all its staff.
September 2015