Cracking down on rogue direct mail is great, but needs an adequate sanction...

It was great to read in Third Sector about the Institute of Fundraising's crackdown on rouge direct mail.  I was particularly pleased that it has written to 22 charities that it believes has broken its code of conduct and that it will report those who don't respond to the FRSB for further investigation.

It would be nice to know why the IoF decided they broke the code and to be given a few more details on what constitutes a breach.  For example, was it because they sent an umbrella through the post, as one charity did to a relation of mine recently?

What is not so great is the lack of sanction available to both the IoF and the FRSB due to a catch 22 situation. 

Both organisations can only punish members and most of the very fundraising charities giving the sector the bad name are not members.  Even more frustratingly the FRSB constitution doesn't even allow it to name the charities who are in breach, but who aren't members.

Whilst I think it's great that action is being taken, it's a real shame that there is no meaningful sanction (a fine / ban on posting via Royal Mail / public naming & shaming etc would all send a strong message) that can be handed out to the culprits who do untold damage to the sector as a whole.