Read our Fundraising Standards & Complaints Policy
Our commitment to you
We, the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), are committed to the highest standards of fundraising practice. We strive to provide excellent experiences and service.
We are a registered charity (no. 232391) and are registered with the Fundraising Regulator.
We value your feedback and take all comments and complaints seriously as an opportunity to learn and improve. If you feel that our actions have fallen short of our commitments, you can make a complaint, see below, and we promise to investigate it thoroughly and fairly.
Our Fundraising Promise to you
We hope that our registration with the Fundraising Regulator builds trust and confidence in charitable giving and, ultimately, encourages more people to provide vital support for the work of the Orchestra and the many communities it reaches through the power of its music and its award-winning learning and outreach programmes.
- We are committed to high standards.
- We are honest and open.
- We are clear.
- We are respectful.
- We are fair and reasonable.
- We are accountable.
What is a complaint?
A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction that expects a response and seeks to affect change. A complaint may concern the fundraising standards of service, experience, actions or lack of actions by the LSO, its staff, volunteers or third party acting on our behalf or involved in our work.
A complaint is not:
- a general query about the LSO’s work and activity;
- a general or specific query about a donation, membership or other kind of fundraising activity or service;
- a request for information;
- a contractual dispute;
- a request to alter records that the LSO holds of you (e.g. an address, name, donation information, ticket order or event registration); or
- a request to no longer receive fundraising communications.
How to make a complaint
Our staff are committed to our Fundraising Promise to you. However, if you have had an experience that does not reach your expectations, please email complaints@lso.co.uk and your complaint will be forwarded to our Head of Development, who will be happy to speak to you further about your experience.
If you are a member of staff or volunteer of the LSO and would like to raise a complaint about our fundraising practices, please contact the company’s Head of HR who will investigate the matter following our company policies.
Please include the following information to allow us to investigate and treat your complaint appropriately:
- Full name and contact details (email or postal address).
- Phone number, in case we need to discuss your complaint with you as part of our investigation.
- A full description of your complaint, including details on date, time, location, and any members of staff or other people representing the LSO involved as possible.
Process and timelines
Upon receipt of your complaint, we will aim to:
- acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 5 working days, and
- investigate the matter of your complaint thoroughly and fairly.
- to respond to your complaint in writing within 15 working days following acknowledgement of receipt. If the investigation requires more time, we will contact you within this period to provide a new estimated time of providing a response.
- Upon resolving your complaint, we are committed to review what we have learned and will improve our practices if appropriate.
If you remain dissatisfied following our initial response, your complaint will be referred to our Company Secretary or other Senior Manager of the organisation who will work with the relevant department to resolve the issue.
We are registered with the Fundraising Regulator and on the Fundraising Preference Service. If you have raised a complaint and are dissatisfied with our response at the end of our internal process, you can refer the matter for further investigation by contacting the Fundraising Regulator directly:
Online: www.fundraisingregulator.org.uk
Phone: 0300 999 3407 (Mon to Fri, 09.30 am – 4.30 pm)
