Professional Fundraiser Agreements (Charities)

As part of their fundraising efforts, many charities engage independent professional fundraising businesses, in return for a fee, to solicit donations, or to recruit prospective donors, or to run other types of fundraising programmes for them. It is important to apply a legally drafted Fundraiser Agreement.

Legal Compliance

These Professional Fundraiser Agreement (Charities) templates are compliant with the UK GDPR (UK General Data Protection Regulation). They have been drafted by experienced charity solicitors to comply with the charity law requirements governing arrangements between a charity and a “professional fundraiser”. In particular, charity law requires the professional fundraiser to enter into a written agreement with the charity, not only setting out the deal between them but also covering a number of other particular matters specified by the legislation.

A “professional fundraiser” is defined under charity law as any person or organisation which carries on a “fundraising business”, i.e. “a business carried on for gain and wholly or primarily engaged in soliciting or otherwise procuring money or other property for charitable, benevolent or philanthropic purposes”.

Types of Fundraiser Agreement Templates 

Examples of situations where a fundraising business would be acting as a “professional fundraiser” would be where it is engaged by a charity to secure donations for the charity from new donors by:

• stopping people on the high street and persuading them to sign direct debit mandates for monthly donations to the charity (“face-to-face” donor recruitment) - this example is included in the Schedule to the Professional Fundraiser Agreement (Individual Donors); or
• contacting potential corporate donors or grant-making trusts seeking donations - this example is included in the Schedule to the Professional Fundraiser Agreement (Organisations).

These are only a couple of examples of a fundraising business acting as a “professional fundraiser” included in each Schedule to indicate a typical means of fundraising activity for which each template is likely to be suitable. However, other fundraising initiatives or activities might also amount to a charity engaging a “professional fundraiser” under charity law. If there is doubt about that in any case, legal advice should be taken.

The benefits for a charity of engaging a professional fundraiser may include:

• specialist expertise in developing fundraising strategies
• enabling the charity to gain significant additional voluntary income in the form of donations from individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies 
• implementation of a particular fundraising programme (face to face, direct mail, online or other) or an event, designed and run by an organisation with expertise and resources which the charity does not have in-house 
• increased public awareness of the charity’s purposes which in turn assists in fundraising.

Select appropriate Fundraiser Agreement Template:

• Professional Fundraiser Agreement (Individual Donors)
• Professional Fundraiser Agreement (Organisations)

Professional Fundraiser Agreements (Charities) is part of Corporate. Just £38.50 + VAT provides unlimited downloads from Corporate for 1 year.