UK Charity Fundraising Laws, Legal Requirements & Regulations

This 1st part of this resource covers UK charity fundraising laws, legal requirements and regulations on raising money, and donations to charities, including the Fundraising Regulator and Charity Commission CC20 regulations and guidance, as well as fundraising if you are not a charity and a charity donating to another charity. The 2nd part gives charity trustees 20 ways in which they can become actively involved in fundraising. 

CHARITY TRUSTEES - FUNDRAISING LAWS AND REGULATION

Sometimes charity trustees don't conisder fundraising to be their responsibility and only 50% actively support fundraising and help secure donations.  However, charity trustees must comply not only with the Charity Commission CC20 and Fundraising Regulator guidance, but the ICO data protection guidance and other regulation.     

For charities working internationally, some UK laws are applicable to work overseas, such as anti-bribery and data protection legislation, and there are specific HMRC requirements in respect of transferring charitable funding overseas and tax, as well as international agreements and host country legislation. 

Charity Commission CC20 - Fundraising Regulations

Charity Commission guidance (CC20) makes clear that fundraising is a board responsibility. It lays out 6 key principles – a very good starting point. 

1. Planning effectively.
2. Supervising your fundraisers.
3. Protecting your charity’s reputation, money and other assets.
4. Identifying and ensuring compliance with the laws or regulations that apply specifically to your charity’s fundraising.
5. Identifying and following any recognised standards that apply to your charity’s fundraising.
6. Being open and accountable.

Fundraising Regulator

The Fundraising Regulator guidance largely reflects that of the Charity Commission in that the main duty of trustees is to advance the purposes of the charity, act in the charity’s best interest and that the charity’s assets and resources are only used for the purposes for which the charity was set up. This extends to the charity's fundraising activities.  The detailed Fundraising Regulator guidance covers:

• General fundraising duties.
• Risk assessment.
• Accepting, refusing and returning donations.
• Complaints and concerns about fundraising.
• Paying fundraisers.
• Solicitation statements.
• Using funds.
• Accounting and reporting.

Specific Queries on Fundraising Laws, Legal Requirements & Regulations

If you have a detailed query about charity fundraising laws, legal requirements or regulations, click the AI Bunny icon in the bottom right of your screen.  Ask it short questions, including key words.  The AI bunnies can answer between 10k and 20k questions on any aspect of running a non profit, including finding funding and policy templates.

Can You Fundraise Without Being A Charity?

People frequently run their own fundraisers for medical treatment or to meet other needs, which is OK, as long as you do not claim to be a charity and the funding raised is spent for the purpose for which you said were raising it.  However, there is no doubt that being a charity will make raising money through fundraising far better.  And although ,many don't realise, you don't need to be registered with the Charity Commission to be a charity in law.  If you’re think of starting a registered, or unregistered charity, you'll find everything you need in my charity start-up toolbox. 

Can A Charity Donate To Another Charity?

Although not always that well understood a charity can donate to another charity, or even other kinds of non profit and, in some circumstances, even private companies.  However, the donation must fall within your charitable objects, be in the best interests of your charity and may only be used for exclusively charitable purposes. You can find more detail on this in my example grant making policy.

Don't Miss Out On Securing More Funding

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CHARITY TRUSTEES - HOW TO CARRY OUT YOUR FUNDRAISING ROLE & HELP SECURE DONATIONS

It is not trustees' responsibility to do all this themselves, but it is their responsibility to ensure that it is done. Here's how to make sure there are adequate fundraising systems in place and working. And this isn't just about compliance. Effective fundraising management and control helps to minimise risk and increase your fundraising income.

Creating A Fundraising Culture

With demand expected to increase and income not, driving fundraising growth is critical to protecting increasingly vulnerable services. Regrettably, all too often, some people still see this as ‘not my problem’. Even trustees and senior staff who are responsible for making clear that it is and without whom it won’t be. Trustees must recognise that fundraising is a priority and the responsibility of everyone in the charity, and get behind the CEO and fundraisers to create a fundraising culture.  

Trustees Exercising Oversight

Equally, whilst some fundraisers are brilliant, others can be masters of obfuscation – these are usually the ones you really do need to ask the right questions of. For many of us, fundraising is a bit of a black art. Can your fundraising reports be understood by everyone, do they focus on the key issues (both financial and non-financial), report against business plan/budget targets and identify the action being taken, by whom, when this will be achieved by and the impact expected? If not, ask for the clarity you need.  Here's a Charity Excellence resource on how to make your reports more effective and less work.

Here are some compliance questions that the Fundraising Regulator advises you should be asking about fundraising:

1. Have you undertaken a risk assessment?
2. Do you have:
   1. A policy that clearly lays out how the charity accepts or refuses and uses donations?
   2. A publicly available procedure for handling fundraising complaints?
      1. And, how can the charity learn from the complaints it receives?
   3. The required agreements in place when working with others?

If you don't, you can download examples you can use from the Income questionnaire. 

Trustee Financial Support - Donations

For individuals, there are a range of tax efficient giving opportunities. 

·        Using Gift Aid, charities can claim back additional income from HMRC (as long as the donor is a UK tax payer) and, if he/she is a higher rate tax payer, they can claim this portion back for themselves. 

·        There are also tax efficient opportunities around the donation of shares, land, buildings and in wills. 

For companies, charitable donations can be used to minimise tax liability. Not only on financial donations, but also equipment, stock, land, property, shares, sponsorship and seconding employees.   

You could consider social investment which also offers tax relief.

Non-Financial Support By Trustees

Trustees may not wish to donate, or may not be able to do so. However, there are a whole range of other ways in which trustees can be actively involved in supporting fundraising. 

Access To Company Giving Schemes & Fundraising

·        For example, supporting in pitching to staff through company magazines for donations, or through payroll giving schemes.  

·        Senior staff in major companies are sometimes allocated funding that they can donate to a chosen charity. 

·        Some larger companies have charity trust funds (eg Lloyds and Fidelity) and internal support can be extremely helpful in securing funding.

·        Encouraging staff to organise or take part in challenge events to raise not only funds, but also promote the company and build team working and morale.

Non-cash Donations - Goods & Pro Bono

Goods – for example, support from food and drink companies to help with the cost of events. Charities also buy a wide range of goods, usually at retail prices, such as food, IT, office furniture and carpets.   

Pro Bono services – for example, construction, marketing/PR, sales, HR, H&SW, IT support and training, but also a whole range of others.   

Company Volunteering & Fundraising Promotion By Trustees

Many companies (eg Waitrose and John Lewis) encourage volunteering and may be able to offer specialist skills you might otherwise have to pay for.  

There are a variety of charity recycling schemes for printer and photocopier cartridges and old mobile phones. All you need would be for the company to agree to promote and distribute collection boxes that are collected by the provider.

You can create your own web shop via a range of companies, who can help with leaflets/posters etc. Individuals are able to make purchases from a range of retailers at no additional cost, and sometimes with discounts, and the charity receives commission in return. And there are now a whole range of charity apps. 

In a similar vein, E Bay for Charity supports charities. Anyone can give to your charity when they sell on eBay. Sellers can donate between 10% and 100% of each item's sale price. PayPal Giving Fund will collect the donation from the seller, claim Gift Aid (if eligible) and pass 100% of the money on to you.

Access To Trustee Networks

Everyone has a personal network and, potentially much more valuable, many of us have professional or business networks with commercial companies, the Media and, possibly, high net worth prospects or trusts/foundations. Having this conversation with trustees or suitable supporters during recruitment/induction, or circulating prospect lists to the board can be very useful. 

Even if individuals don’t have suitable contacts, they can still help by attending fundraising events and talking to prospects or, if appropriate, accompanying the CEO/fundraisers to meetings with trusts or prospects. 

Trustee Advocacy For Your Cause

Trustees and volunteers can also promote your work to the Media and influencers in your community. Actively encourage them to do so and provide them with support/material they might need. 

For some, this may only be getting an article published in the company newsletter or similar, displaying a poster or making leaflets available in the workplace, but it all helps. 

Also, encourage them to join your social media networks and to like and re-post/re-tweet your posts to raise your profile and build your followers.   

A Huge Range Of Free Charity Governance & Fundraising Resources

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• Data Finder - finds data for funding bids, fundraising research, impact reporting, planning and campaigning. 

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Caveat

I am neither a lawyer, nor an accountant, so not competent to issue professional advice. This is a laymans guide inrended for general understanbding.  If you need legal help, ask the AI bunny to connect you to pro bono legal support.