The waterways and wellbeing charity the Canal & River Trust has announced it is taking its face-to-face fundraising programme in-house.
In a statement, the charity said it was looking to step up its post-lockdown fundraising activity by advertising an initial 24 roles, which would be recruited over the next few months.
The charity was not specific about why it parted ways with its agency, Inspired People, but said the decision was based on a review of the alternative models and the ways of working that it thought would bring the best long-term benefits to the trust. It also said the move was not a cost-saving exercise.
The charity said it had invited the nine fundraisers on assignment from the agency to apply for the in-house roles.
The agency was unable to provide a comment before publication of this article.
The charity said it had just under 28,000 “friends” who made regular monthly gifts, although this was down from about 30,000 before the Covid-19 pandemic began.
The charity said the coronavirus outbreak had led it to halt its towpath engagement and fundraising activity.
Hamish Shilliday, head of individual and legacy giving at the charity, said: “With the easing of restrictions, we are relaunching our face-to-face activity and, following an in-depth review, we are excited to be changing the way we operate to drive our Covid-19 recovery plans and future performance.
“The new roles are benchmarked so that the trust is able to attract the best candidates and the move to an in-house team will allow the charity to give more direct input and support for its fundraisers day-to-day.”
James Munoz, face-to-face development manager at the charity, said: “Towpath fundraising is about raising much-needed funds to continue our work, but also about introducing communities to the waterways – encouraging people to explore the network and all it has to offer.
“Our friends and regular givers make an important contribution to the work of the trust in protecting the benefits that our network of waterways provides.
“We would like to thank Inspired People and their team for the work they have done to support the trust over the last eight years in growing our community of regular givers and friends.”