Earlier this year, the Fundraising Regulator engaged with charities on our plans to increase the Fundraising Levy and registration fee - which funds our work - for the first time since we were established in 2016.
You can read more about our proposals and the responses we received from over 200 charities on our website, along with a blog from our Chair, Lord Toby Harris, setting out our thoughts on some of the points raised by charities.
We recognise that charities are currently facing a challenging economic environment. But, like other organisations, our costs have significantly increased in the eight years since we were established, while our work has also become more complex.
A fee increase will enable us to continue providing effective and proportionate regulation of the sector that promotes public trust and confidence in charitable fundraising. This includes managing an increasing caseload of investigations while also committing to being a more proactive regulator, ensuring emerging or unaddressed issues about charity fundraising can be addressed before they crystallise.
As the levy increase applies only to charities that spend over £100,000 on their fundraising activity each year, the majority of charitable organisations in Northern Ireland will be unaffected. For those that do pay the levy, we have tried to make the increase as fair as possible so that the largest fundraising charities see the largest levy increase. You can see how the levy changes, if applicable, will affect you on our website.
In Northern Ireland, charitable organisations who register with us mainly pay the yearly registration fee which will only see a slight increase, rising from £50 to £60. Charitable organisations who are registered with us are:
- Listed on the public directory on our website which donors can check before giving.
- Able to demonstrate to the public, including potential donors, that they are committed to fundraising in a way that is legal, open, honest and respectful.
- Allowed to use the Fundraising Badge, a logo that says they are ‘registered with Fundraising Regulator’, on fundraising materials. In our recent research, two-fifths of survey respondents said that the existence of the Fundraising Regulator would make them more likely to trust regulated charitable fundraisers.
One key thing to highlight is that even charitable organisations not registered with the Fundraising Regulator can access the free guidance and resources available on our website. This includes:
- A library of advice and guidance on different fundraising topics.
- Our Code Advice Service where you can ask a question about the Code of Fundraising Practice.
- Investigation summaries to share learnings with the sector from our recent investigations.
- Our Annual Complaints Report which shares learnings from our own casework plus complaints reported by most of the UK’s largest fundraising charities.
If you have any questions about our levy and registration fees, or about our work in general, please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected].
