Charity Connection - fundraising and building trust

Helping the public donate with confidence

This issue of Charity Connection explores some of the ways to help the public to donate with trust and confidence – from guidance on fundraising responsibly, to our work encouraging safer giving practices.

Our research reveals that showing a charity is registered increases public confidence that it makes an impact. Consistently we see that what matters most to the public is knowing where their money is spent, and that a charity achieves its purpose and makes a difference.

Knowing that a charity is registered...

81% said they would feel more confident that it spends most of the money directly on the charitable cause

79% said they would feel more confident that it is making an impact

As you plan your own charity communications and upcoming fundraising campaigns, be sure to include your registered charity number (you can point to your page on the charity register), and help the public see the difference their donation is making.

Also in this issue:

• Brush up on safeguarding
• Explore the charity register

Who's responsibility?

It’s normal practice in many charities for day-to-day fundraising activities and their management to be delegated to staff and others. But all your charity’s trustees have ultimate responsibility and accountability for the charity’s fundraising.

To ensure they are fulfilling their duties, charity trustees should follow the 6 principles set out in our fundraising guidance. These are:

• plan effectively
• supervise your fundraisers
• protect your charity’s reputation, money and other assets
• follow fundraising laws and regulation
• follow recognised standards for fundraising
• be open and accountable

Get your appeal wording right

If your charity is fundraising for a specific purpose or project, it’s important to think carefully about how you word your appeal and what records you will need to keep.?

This is because donations to an appeal for a specific purpose (for example, raising money to fix a village hall roof) must only be used for that purpose.

To help avoid difficulties, we recommend first reading our guidance on writing fundraising appeals, which covers options such as including a ‘secondary purpose’ or broadening your appeal.

If you’ve already launched an appeal for a specific purpose, we have guidance on what to do if:

• your charity has raised more than it needs
• you have not raised enough or cannot achieve your appeal purpose

Deciding whether to accept, refuse or return a donation

Did you know that there are legal rules for deciding whether to accept, refuse or return a donation?

Your starting point should be to accept or keep donations so you can use them to further your charity’s purposes. But in certain circumstances you have a legal obligation to refuse or return a donation (for example, if it comes from an illegal source) and in other circumstances you might decide it is in your charity’s best interests to do so.

Find out which rules you must follow when making your decision.

Giving safely this Ramadan

To help maintain trust in the charity sector, and ensure that donations reach their intended causes, we run campaign activity across the year to raise public awareness of how to give safely to registered charities.

While most fundraising is genuine, fraudsters and criminals can seek to take advantage of public generosity. Especially at times of increased giving, which can include religious festivals or following a natural disaster or humanitarian emergency.

With Ramadan coming up at the end of the end of the month, it’s a time of great generosity and charitable giving among British Muslims. So, we’ll be running the latest phase of our ‘donate with confidence’ campaign which includes our ‘Steps to safer giving’.

Visit the donate with confidence website to learn more.

Recent news

• Safeguarding – last week was Sexual Abuse & Sexual Violence Awareness Week. All charities have responsibilities to ensure that they keep everyone who has contact with them safe from harm. If you’ve not recently read our safeguarding guidance, why not brush up on it today?
• Explore the charity register – the end of January is always one of the busiest times for charities submitting their annual returns or reporting their income and spending to us. Did you know you can view this information by finding the charity on our register?

Coming up

• Safer internet day (11 February) – learn how to protect yourself from online scams and keep your charity cyber secure this safer internet day.
• New Simpler Recycling regulations for workplaces are due to come into force on 31 March 2025 (or 31 March 2027 for micro-firms). Check the guidance from DEFRA to see if your charity has to follow the rules on separating recyclable waste.
• Refreshed guidance – this Spring, we will be publishing revised guidance on trustee payments and benefits to make it clearer for all. We will also be refreshing our guidance on finding new trustees. Sign up for website notifications so you don’t miss out.

Subscribe to receive regular updates from the Charity Commission, connecting you with news, insights and guidance from our teams to help your charities thrive.