A newspaper story today has featured claims about practices by Oxfam Great Britain in relation to bequests.
The claims are based on an unsubstantiated nearly 30-year-old anecdote told at a recent fundraising conference in Australia by an English fundraising specialist who has never worked with Oxfam Australia.
Oxfam Australia was not present at the conference.
The anecdote – referring to the death of an elderly person shortly after signing a bequest – is in extremely bad taste and given its nearly 30-year-old age, it is difficult to ascertain whether in fact the incident ever actually happened.
Bequests form a very small part of Oxfam Australia’s fundraising and, unless we are approached by members of the general public, we only discuss bequests with our long term donors.
By their very nature bequests are an extremely personal and private way to donate and we treat them accordingly.
Oxfam follows best-practice ethics in our fundraising activities which are guided by our core values and adhere to strict codes of conduct. We have the utmost respect for all of our donors because the work we do helping people out of poverty would not be possible without them.
For media enquiries please contact Louise Perry on 0414 456 015 or Sunita Bose on 0407 555 960.
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