Policy templates / Complaints Policy
Charity Complaints Policy Template (Free, UK)
Filled in from your workspace when you adopt it in CharityControl. A starting point to adapt, not legal advice.
1. What this policy is for
your charity wants to hear when we get something wrong. This policy tells anyone, whether a beneficiary, member, supporter, volunteer, donor or member of the public, how to complain about our services, our conduct or our fundraising, and what we will do about it. A complaint is any time someone tells us they are unhappy and wants us to put something right or to change how we act, whether made in person, by phone, by email or in writing.
2. What this policy does not cover
Some concerns are too serious or too specific for the ordinary complaints route, and go elsewhere straight away:
- A worry that a child or adult is being harmed or is at risk. Tell our safeguarding lead, from your register, the same day. If someone is in immediate danger, call 999 first.
- Wrongdoing such as fraud, dishonesty or a serious risk to the public. Use our whistleblowing route, from your register.
- A personal grievance from a member of staff about their own pay, treatment or working conditions. That sits in our employment and HR procedures, outside this governance policy set, not here. Volunteers do not have a separate grievance route: a volunteer who is unhappy can raise it through this policy.
If someone raises one of these as a "complaint", we route it to the right process and tell them we have done so. A complaint can also turn out to be a serious incident in its own right. Where it does, we assess and report it under our Serious Incident Reporting Policy.2
3. How to complain
Most concerns are sorted out quickly by talking to whoever you were dealing with. If that does not resolve it, or you would rather not, contact from your register at from your register, or complain online at Raise a concern online. Please tell us what happened, when, and what you would like us to do to put it right. You can ask someone to complain on your behalf. We will not treat you any less favourably for raising a concern.
If your complaint is about from your register, contact from your register instead. Nobody looks into a complaint about themselves.
You do not have to give your name. We will still look into an anonymous complaint, though we may not be able to reply to you.
4. What we will do, and by when
We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days and give a full reply within 15 working days. You can change these timescales to suit your charity, but say what they are and keep to them. If we need longer, for example the matter is complicated or a key person is away, we will tell you why and give you a new date. One person will look into what happened, fairly and without taking sides, and write to you with our findings, any action we are taking, and how you can take it further if you are still unhappy.
5. If you are still not satisfied
If our reply does not resolve things, you can ask for it to be reviewed by from your register. Anyone who is the subject of a complaint takes no part in investigating or deciding it. If you remain dissatisfied after that review, you can go to a regulator:
- About how the charity is run or a serious concern: the Charity Commission (see "Complain about a charity" on GOV.UK).3
- About our fundraising: the Fundraising Regulator, once you have given us the chance to respond first.4
We will give you the up-to-date contact details for whichever applies.
6. When a complaint is closed, and unreasonable behaviour
Once we have given our final reply, the complaint is closed. If someone repeats a complaint we have already answered and brings nothing new, we treat it as closed and say so. We answer every genuine complaint, but if someone's behaviour is abusive we may limit how they can contact us. Before we do, two people, a trustee and the person handling the complaint, agree it in writing, and we explain the decision to the complainant.
7. Confidentiality, records and learning
We treat complaints in confidence and share the details only with those who need them to look into the matter. Any personal information is handled in line with our obligations under UK data protection law and our Data Protection Policy. We keep a brief note of each complaint and how it was resolved. The trustees see a short summary of complaints at least once a year. We use what we learn to improve, because a complaint is feedback, not just a problem to close.
8. Review
The trustees review this policy at least every two years and after any complaint that suggests it is not working. This template is a starting point, not legal advice. Approved by the board on your review date; next review your review date; owner from your register.
More about this policy
When you need it
There is no single law that says every charity must have a complaints policy. But two things make one close to essential. First, if [your charity] fundraises from the public, the Code of Fundraising Practice requires you to have a complaints procedure[1] and to handle complaints properly. That is a regulatory duty, not a nicety. Second, the Charity Governance Code expects every charity to be open and accountable[5], and the Charity Commission can look at how a charity handles serious complaints.
There is also a safety net you need whatever your size. A complaint is sometimes really a safeguarding disclosure, fraud or another serious incident that carries its own duty to report to the Commission.[2] A good complaints policy catches those and sends them down the right route.
So it is good practice for every charity, a duty if you fundraise, and either way the route by which problems reach you before they reach a regulator.
What it protects against5 examples
A complaint about the chief officer or a trustee is handed to that same person to answer. They mark their own homework, downplay it, and the complainant never gets a fair hearing.
The policy names an alternative route (a named trustee, or the chair) for any complaint about the person who would normally handle complaints, so nobody investigates a complaint about themselves.
A complaint is really a safeguarding disclosure or a whistleblowing concern (a child at risk, fraud, a coach behaving inappropriately) but it gets logged as routine feedback and worked through the slow complaints process. Real harm is missed.
The policy tells the reader how to spot these and divert them at once to the safeguarding lead or the whistleblowing route, and says the complaints timescale does not apply when someone may be at risk.
Complaints are dealt with in people's heads and never written down. The same service keeps failing, the same volunteer keeps being named, but no one sees the pattern and nothing changes.
Every complaint is recorded in one simple log, and trustees look at the log regularly to spot repeats and decide what to fix.
One person complains again and again about the same thing that has already been answered, or is abusive to staff. A small team has no way to draw a line and loses days to it.
The policy sets out, briefly, when a complaint is treated as closed and how the charity can limit contact with a persistent or abusive complainant, decided by more than one person.
A complaint gets no acknowledgement and no timescale. The complainant hears nothing for weeks, gives up on the charity, and goes straight to the Charity Commission, the Fundraising Regulator, or social media.
The policy commits to a clear acknowledgement time and a target to resolve, and tells complainants how to escalate to the trustees and then to the relevant regulator if they are still unhappy.
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How to enforce it
Practical steps to make it live, not just filed:
- Name one person as the point of contact for complaints, and name a second person (usually the chair) to take over when the complaint is about the first. Put both on the website and tell service users when they join.
- Keep one simple complaints log, a spreadsheet is fine, with the date, what the complaint was, who is handling it, the outcome, and the date it was closed. Every complaint goes on it, including ones sorted informally.
- Acknowledge each complaint within a set number of working days and give a realistic date for a full answer. If you will miss it, say so and give a new date rather than going quiet.
- Put the complaints log on the trustee meeting agenda every quarter. Read out the numbers and any repeats, and record what the charity changed as a result.
- At the start of each case, check whether it is really a safeguarding or whistleblowing matter. If it might be, hand it to the safeguarding lead or the whistleblowing route the same day and do not wait for the normal timescale.
What larger charities add6
Pull one in only when it matches something you actually do:
- Our stages and timescales Mid-size (£1m to £10m)+
- Recording complaints and reporting to trustees Mid-size (£1m to £10m)+
- Complaints about senior staff, the chief officer or a trustee Mid-size (£1m to £10m)+
- Independent review Large (£10m+)+
- Unreasonable or persistent complaints Large (£10m+)+
- Complaints about third parties acting for us Large (£10m+)+
What people get wrong
- Adopting a large charity's three-stage, independent-panel procedure. A two- or three-person charity cannot run Stage 1/2/3, a complaints register and an external review panel, and a policy you cannot follow is worse than none. Start with a named contact, a timescale and an escalation route, then add stages only when your volume needs them.
- Leaving out the external escalation route or any timescale. The two things that make a complaints policy real are a promise of when you will reply and a named route onward: the Charity Commission for how the charity is run, the Fundraising Regulator for fundraising. A policy without these does not meet the duty, however long it is.
- Treating a safeguarding disclosure or whistleblowing report as an ordinary complaint. These carry their own duties and must not sit in the complaints queue. Signpost them out explicitly, to your safeguarding lead or whistleblowing route, and remember a serious complaint may also need reporting to the Commission as a serious incident under our Serious Incident Reporting Policy.
- Assuming you do not need one because there is no statutory duty. If [your charity] fundraises from the public, the Code of Fundraising Practice requires a complaints procedure. It is a duty for you. Even if you do not, the Governance Code expects one and it is your early-warning system before a regulator gets involved.
- No owner and no record, so the same problems recur and trustees never hear. Name who owns complaints, keep even a light note of each one, and put the themes in front of trustees. Complaints are your cheapest source of improvement, but only if someone looks across them.
Terms used here1
- serious incident
- An event the Charity Commission expects trustees to report, such as significant harm, fraud or a major loss.
Sources5
Numbered to match the [n] citations in the template.
- Code of Fundraising Practice (Fundraising Regulator): requires fundraising charities to have and follow a complaints procedure legal duty
- How to report a serious incident in your charity (Charity Commission) legal duty
- Complain about a charity (Charity Commission): the onward route for the public Commission guidance
- Make a complaint (Fundraising Regulator): complain to the charity first, then the regulator Commission guidance
- Charity Governance Code: openness and accountability good practice