Code of Fundraising Practice
The new Code of Fundraising Practice comes into force on 1 October 2019. It outlines the standards and legal responsibilities expected of all charitable fundraising across the UK. The Fundraising Regulator has responsibility for the Code.
This is the first major redraft of the code in nearly 10 years and improvements have been made to the style, presentation and accessibility to make it easier for charities to understand the standards expected of them when fundraising.
To help with these changes the Fundraising Regulator has produced a mapping document and deletions and mergers log to show where old rules and sections have moved to, which will be available online until November 2019.
Charity fundraising in the UK is governed on a self-regulatory basis. Under self-regulation individual charities are the first point of call for any complaints about fundraising practices. Where a charity is unable to resolve the complaint, the complainant can escalate it to one of the following:
- In Scotland, it is Scottish Fundraising Standards Panel with the secretariat provided by the Institute of Fundraising Scotland (IoF).
- In England and Wales it is the Fundraising Regulator.
OSCR’s fundraising guidance highlights the duties of all charity trustees under Scottish charity law and how these duties can apply to fundraising. It sets out the rules that charity trustees must follow when their charity carries out fundraising activities, whether small, occasional fundraising or as its main source of income.