ShareAction is committed to ensuring its work is of the highest quality. We recognise that there may be occasions when individuals wish to express dissatisfaction with our services, actions, or conduct. This policy is:

• To provide a fair complaints procedure that is clear and easy to use for anyone wishing to make a complaint.
• To publicise the existence of our complaints procedure so that people know how to contact us to make a complaint.
• To make sure everyone at ShareAction knows what to do if a complaint is received.
• To make sure all complaints are investigated fairly and in a timely way.
• To make sure that complaints are, wherever possible, resolved and that relationships are repaired.
• To gather information which helps us to improve what we do.

ShareAction strives to achieve our charitable objects to the best of our ability but recognises that we may not get everything right. Ensuring that our stakeholders can hold us to account will improve the quality of our work. When we make a mistake, we want and need to be informed. We will use the information to endeavour to put things right and to help us to become more effective and as an opportunity to improve.

Anyone we engage with can raise a complaint. This includes members of the public, partners, donors, funders, consultants and contractors.

If an employee or a volunteer wishes to make a complaint, they should follow ShareAction’s Grievance Policy. If they want to disclose information that relates to suspected wrongdoing (e.g., a breach of a legal, statutory, or regulatory requirement or unethical, immoral behaviour) they should consider ShareAction’s Whistleblowing Policy.

A complaint can be made by an individual or an organisation to report dissatisfaction about the standards of our work, actions or lack of action by ShareAction or its staff, volunteers or anybody directly involved in the delivery of our work.

Complaints should be raised as soon as possible and in any case within 3 months after the issue is identified to allow an efficient investigation and resolution process. However, we will consider complaints made outside this time limit if it is possible to investigate them fairly and effectively.

If you are in contact with the relevant team in ShareAction, the complaint can be raised directly with them. The team will liaise with the Complaints Officer at ShareAction, who is the Chief Operating Officer.

Otherwise, you can raise your complaint directly with the Chief Operating Officer.

If the complaint is about the Chief Operating Officer or the Chief Executive Officer, the complaint should be addressed to the Chair of the Finance, Audit, Risk and Controls (FARC) Committee. Include this wording “strictly FAO the Chair of the FARC Committee only” in the subject line of your email or on the envelope.

You can make a complaint in any of the following ways.

• In writing to Complaints Officer, ShareAction, Runway East, 2 Whitechapel Road, London, E1 1EW, UK
• By email to: complaints@shareaction.org - please note that this email address is monitored by the Chief Operating Officer and the Senior Governance Manager to ensure a timely reply.

Complaints should include:

• Name and contact details of the complainant
• Details of the complaint, describing clearly what happened and including relevant dates and parties involved
• Any supporting documentation or evidence
• Tell us why you are making a complaint
• Tell us what you would like us to do

ShareAction cannot respond to complaints made anonymously. However, we will investigate the complaint if appropriate and use the information to improve in any way that we can.

Our aim is to deal with any complaint as soon as possible. Upon receipt of a complaint, the Complaints Officer will acknowledge receipt promptly, at most within 20 working days.

The Complaints Officer will investigate the complaint impartially, gathering relevant information and seeking input from relevant parties as necessary.

We may need to contact you during this time and your cooperation will be important in order to complete the investigation.

A formal written response outlining the findings of the investigation and any actions taken or proposed resolutions will be provided to the complainant within 40 working days of receiving the complaint. Any extension of this time limit requires your consent.

Appeal Process

If you remain dissatisfied with the outcome of the decisions regarding your complaint, you can appeal the complaint decision.

You can do so by writing to the Chief Executive Officer of ShareAction, setting out briefly the nature of the complaint/appeal; the steps already taken; details of the response received; and a statement as to why you are dissatisfied.

The Chief Executive Officer will review all the information held relating to your complaint and will conduct further investigations if they consider that the initial investigation was insufficient.

If the complaint was about the Chief Operating Officer or the Chief Executive Officer, the appeal should be addressed to the Chair of the Board.

More information on how to appeal will be included in the formal written response to the complaint. This will include the email/physical address to write to.

External Bodies

Once the internal review is complete, you will be informed what the decision is and if you are still unsatisfied, what the external appeal options are. External bodies that you may consider include:

• Fundraising Regulator: if you are dissatisfied with the response to your fundraising complaint you can contact the Fundraising Regulator (FR) (website) to access their independent complaints procedure.
• Charity Commission: if you are dissatisfied with ShareAction’s complaints process, you can contact the Charity Commission, who will be able to tell you whether they may be able to advise on the matter. The Charity Commission can be contacted at this link.
• Information Commissioner’s Office: if you are dissatisfied with the response to your data related complaint you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at this link. ShareAction’s Privacy Policy should also be consulted on this topic.

There may be rare occasions when we choose not to respond to a complaint at all. These include:

• When a complaint is about something that ShareAction has no direct connection to. We may choose to reply to make this clear but we are not obliged to.

• When someone unreasonably pursues a complaint that we have already responded to. They will be given escalation points but we may choose not to reply again, we will always inform you of our decision to do this.

• When a complainant is being obviously abusive, prejudiced or offensive in their manner.

• When a complainant is harassing a staff member.

• When a complaint is incoherent or illegible.

• When a complaint has clearly been sent to us and numerous other organisations as part of a bulk mailing or email. In this instance, we can choose whether it is necessary for us to reply or no

All complaints will be handled confidentially and with sensitivity to the complainant's privacy rights and in line with ShareAction’s Privacy Policy.

The complaints handling process will be fair and impartial, ensuring all parties are given an opportunity to present their perspective.

Everyone who makes a complaint will be treated with courtesy and respect. In return, we expect people who make a complaint to communicate their concerns fairly and appropriately. Where complainants harass staff, behave abusively, or unreasonably pursue complaints, we reserve the right to withdraw or modify our complaints procedure.

The Complaints Officer will maintain accurate records of all complaints received, investigations conducted, and outcomes reached for monitoring and improvement purposes.

We will log and monitor all serious complaints and results of such complaints and this information will be brought, regularly, to the attention of the Leadership Team and the FARC Committee in order that we learn from what we do and how we do it. This information will not necessarily be available to the public.