Guidance Notes for Charities - Know Your Donor/ Accepting or Refusing Donations

Charity Fundraising

There are a number of ways in which charities can fundraise. As part of their fundraising activities, charities often promote the one-off or regular giving of cash donations by supporters. 

Donor Assessment

Charity trustees sometimes need to assess when and whether their charity may or should refuse to accept a particular proposed donation from a particular donor or, if a donation has already been received by the charity, whether it could or should be returned to the donor.

The Charity Commission recently issued guidance on the topic entitled “Accepting, refusing and returning donations to your charity”. Following the publication of that guidance, the Guidance Notes: Know Your Donor/Refusing Donations have been updated to take account of the new guidance. The Guidance Notes are accompanied by a Donations - Due Diligence Questionnaire.

If you are a charity trustee or are involved in fundraising on behalf of a charity, we recommend that you familiarise yourself with the Commission’s guidance and that you also read our updated document. We also recommend that you take professional legal advice as necessary before making any decisions as to whether to accept, reject or return any donation which appears problematical.

In relation to charity fundraising generally, you might find it useful to refer to the guidance and template documents relating to charity fundraising and grants here, professional fundraisers on behalf of charities here, commercial participators and sponsors here, ex gratia payments by charities here, gift aid here, cash legacies (wills) here, and lotteries/raffles here.

The contents of this Newsletter are for reference purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. Independent legal advice should be sought in relation to any specific legal matter.