Complaints handling

Freedom from Torture is committed to achieving the highest standards in all its fundraising activities but acknowledges that from time to time complaints will arise.

What is a complaint?

Freedom from Torture’s fundraising department, in line with industry guidelines, defines a complaint as “an expression of discontent by a person or persons about an aspect of our fundraising activities that cannot be immediately resolved at the point of delivery, and about which the complainant desires that follow-up action is taken and a response provided.”

We will use your complaint as an opportunity to learn and to improve the fundraising services we deliver.

When should you complain?

When you have a concern or you are dissatisfied with any aspect of Freedom from Torture’s fundraising activities.

What do we not deal with?

  • We only deal with complaints that relate directly to fundraising.
  • The fundraising department does not deal with complaints about the services provided by Freedom from Torture or anything related to the treatment of our clients. If your complaint does relate directly to an aspect of our clinical work, please see our Comments, Suggestions and Complaints Policy.

The Complaint Procedure

Please send any complaints to:

Freedom from Torture, Fundraising Department, 111 Isledon Road, London, N7 7JW

Or, you can contact our fundraising department directly on 020 7697 7788 or via email at [email protected]

We encourage supporters to complain in writing when possible, whether through letter or email, as this helps us to maintain a written record of the complaint.

  • All complaints will be acknowledged within five working days of the complaint being received and where possible, be investigated and resolved within that time frame.
  • If an investigation is likely to take longer than the five working days, the complainant will be notified with a proposed timescale, aiming to resolve the complaint within a maximum of 25 working days.
  • As a complainant, you have the option to bring the complaint to the Fundraising Regulator, of which we are a member, within two months of your final response if we are unable to resolve the matter or you are not satisfied with our response. The Fundraising Regulator will consider the complaint in the light of the Fundraising Promise and the Code of Fundraising Practice. The Fundraising Regulator’s decision will be final. See contact details below.
  • If you are not satisfied with our response to a complaint related to our raffle you can bring the complaint to our ADR entity. As a member of the Lotteries Council, the registered ADR Entity that Freedom from Torture would recommend is:  The Independent Betting Adjudication Service Ltd (IBAS) -PO Box 62639, London,EC3P 3ASTel: 020 7347 5883.

What will happen after I complain?

We aim to make sure we respond to your complaint in line with the timescales set out in our complaints procedure above. We will keep your complaint confidential as far as possible, but we may need to share information with other people who need to know about the complaint in order to resolve it. We will handle information in line with the Data Protection Act and GDPR.

What if I am still not satisfied after my complaint has been responded to?

If you are still unsatisfied after we have responded to your complaint, you are entitled to contact the Fundraising Regulator of which we are a member. Please note that if you contact the Fundraising Regulator directly about your complaint before contacting us, they will refer the complaint to us to respond to in line with the above procedure.

You can contact the Fundraising Regulator at:

2nd Floor, CAN Mezzanine Building, 49-51 East Road, London, N1 6AH

Phone: 0300 999 3407

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://www.fundraisingregulator.org.uk

We will then work together with the Fundraising Regulator to try to resolve your complaint.

For full details of the Fundraising Regulator’s procedure for handling complaints please visit their website.

Last updated: 8 April 2019