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COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE.

We are extremely grateful to all those we work with and who support our work, whether as restoration partners, contractors, volunteers, or supporters, funders, fundraisers, donors and business partners. We endeavour to provide all those we work with or who support our work with appropriate support and care, and we are committed to high standards. 

 

However, we know that sometimes things don’t always go to plan. In these instances, you may wish to provide us with feedback or make a complaint. We welcome feedback and complaints as an opportunity to learn and improve our activities, operations and services. We take all complaints seriously and want to rectify any mistakes that may have been made.

 

Should you wish to make a complaint, please follow the steps below. 

 

If you require additional support to access the complaints process, or you are seeking support on behalf of someone else, then please contact us via email or post, and we will do our best to help.

To submit your complaint to TreeSisters:

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  1. Please submit your complaint as soon as possible after an incident has occurred. Any delays may mean that we are unable to investigate fully.

  2. Tell us as many details as you can about your complaint, including dates, names of individuals involved and any other relevant information. 

    1.  You may make an anonymous complaint but this may limit our ability to investigate. 

      1. If possible, please tell us what reasonable action you would like us to take to resolve your complaint.

  3. Our preference is that you submit your complaint by email. 

    1. All complaints about individuals working as an employee, consultant or volunteer for TreeSisters must be made to the Executive Director, Georgina Gorman, georgina@treesisters.org 

    2. Complaints about anything else must be directed to support@treesisters.org 

  4. Should you prefer, you may also submit your complaint by letter posted to the following address:
    Complaints, TreeSisters, Fifth Floor , Mariner House, 62 Prince Street, Bristol BS1 4QD
    Please note that complaints submitted by post will generally take longer to process, due to inherent delays in physical mail delivery and processing.

  5. Once we have received your complaint, it will be shared with the relevant members of staff responsible for investigating complaints.

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What you need to know about our complaints procedure:

  1. We will treat all those making a complaint with respect and make sure all complaints are investigated thoroughly and fairly.

  2. We will investigate all claims relating to TreeSisters activities and operations. This could include the use or distribution of fundraising materials, marketing communications and consents, how we promote and manage specific fundraising campaigns, the actions of specific members of staff, our direct communications with you, or perceived fraud or a misuse of funds.

  3. We will not investigate complaints made against someone fundraising ‘in aid of’ TreeSisters, although we will make a basic assessment and look to facilitate the resolution of any issues where possible. 

  4. We are a small team at TreeSisters and endeavour to investigate all complaints thoroughly, so thank you in advance for your patience and understanding. 

  5. We aim to acknowledge your complaint within five working days of receipt, advising you of the process and potential timeframes. We will keep you updated on our progress and notify you if the process will take longer than anticipated. This may be the case if the complaint requires further investigation.  

  6. We aim to investigate and respond to your complaint as quickly as possible, aiming to write to you with the outcome in less than 20 working days from when we received your complaint. 

  7. Depending on the outcome of our investigation, and if it is appropriate, you may receive a formal written apology and / or the return of any gift or donation that you have made to TreeSisters. If things have gone wrong, we will acknowledge this and take action to put things right. We will advise you of what lessons we have learnt and any changes that may be made as a result of your complaint. 

  8. The complaint response will explain our findings and what action we will be taking/have taken, subject to the constraints of the Data Protection Act, which will almost certainly not allow us to disclose sensitive personal information.

  9. We aim to process and resolve all complaints ourselves, as this is often the quickest way for all parties and enables us to learn from it. If, however, we are unable to resolve a complaint we will advise you of this. In this instance, if your complaint is related to fundraising, you can make a complaint directly to the Fundraising Regulator, the independent regulator of charitable fundraising in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. 

  10. We will do our best to resolve your complaint, but if you are unhappy with the response you have received from us, you can:

    1. Appeal the decisions and request that we escalate the complaint to someone more senior at TreeSisters. We will provide you with details of how to make your appeal when you receive your decision. 

    2. Make a complaint directly to the Fundraising Regulator, if your complaint is related to our fundraising activities

  11. All complaints will be dealt with confidentially. We will keep your data secure and only use it for the purpose of investigating your complaint. 

  12. We will not accept abusive or unreasonable behaviour, including threats, persistent and excessive contact, or abusive, violent or inappropriate language or behaviour. In these instances we may either escalate the complaint to a more senior member of staff or end the investigation.

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Last reviewed July 2025

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