Charities Act 2006 for Fundraisers
Solicitation Statements
Megan Pacey
Director of Policy and Campaigns
Events Fundraising SIG – June 2008
Who does this impact on?
• Professional Fundraisers
• Commercial Participators
• Trustees or employees of charities
This is not just a face-to-face issue!
For corporate fundraisers
• Retail promotions
• Charity Christmas Cards
• Prize Competitions
• Corporate Support Arrangements
As well as face-to-face street fundraising!
What are the requirements there to do?
• The new requirements are provisions of the Charities Act 2006
and are designed to ensure that the public can make informed
decisions about making donations or purchasing a product from
which are charity will benefit to help protect the high levels of
public trust and confidence that charities need to thrive.
• The overall intention of greater openness and transparency is
strongly welcomed and an important objective.
The Challenges
• Overall intention of greater openness and transparency is
welcomed and an important objective but the cumbersome
nature of the actual declaration that is required to be made by
professional fundraisers completely flies in the face of this
objective.
• Solicitation Statements that are now required when making a
fundraising solicitation are highly complicated and confusing.
This is the law ….
• Onus to make the solicitation statement lies with the commercial
participator.
• Reputation of the charity is at risk if the statement is not in place.
• There is no opting out.
• Institute has raised with Government the concern expressed by
Corporate Fundraisers that the requirement makes the
charity/corporate donation more arduous and may have the
unintended consequence of discouraging corporates to engage
in a relationship with fundraising organisations.
What must the solicitation statement contain?
• Which voluntary or community sector organisation is
to benefit from the promotional venture.
• If there is more than one benefiting organisation, the
proportions in which they are to benefit.
• How much of the proceeds from the promotion will go
to the voluntary or community sector organisation, or
as accurate an estimate as is reasonably possible.
Examples of commercial participator solicitation
statements
• x% of the purchase price will be donated to charity y.
It is expected that we will donate £z in total.
• For each item sold £x/xp will be donated to charity y.
It is expected that we will donate £z in total.
• Company x will donate y% of profits from this
promotion to charity z. This is expected to be at least
£w.
Examples of commercial participator solicitation
statements:
• Company x will donate £y to charity z as a result of
this promotion for the first w items sold, and a further
£s for each additional item sold. The total amount to
be donated is expected to be £t
• Further information could also be supplied in addition
to explain the relationship more fully.
Payroll Giving
•
•
•
•
“I work for fundraising company w and we are working for the benefit of
x number of charities. To view a list of those charities, visit our website:
www.fundraisingcompanyw.co.uk
“Fundraising company w is being paid to recruit supporters like yourself
to make regular donations. You, as the donor, decide which you wish
to donate to and how much you are going to donate to a (each) of the
charity(ies).
W fundraising company is paid by the charities who contract us to
promote payroll giving. If we recruit you to their cause, we paid by the
charity on a sliding scale fee basis, depending on how much you
choose to donate. This is worked out by (payment structure needs to
be explained).
We estimate that fundraising company w will be paid £y by the charities
who contract us to promote payroll giving in the course of this year. If
you choose to give to a charity that we do not represent, we will not be
paid but we will process the donation.”
More help?
• Members of the Institute can access briefings on
Solicitation Statements from the “Members Only”
area of the Institute of Fundraising website.
www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk
• Office of the Third Sector Guidance on Professional
Fundraising and Commercial Participation.
www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk