The Fundraising Regulator Code: The Bits That Trip Charities

The Code of Fundraising Practice is the rulebook UK charity fundraising sits inside. It runs to over 100 pages, references multiple pieces of legislation, and is updated periodically. Most charities have never read it cover to cover, and most do not need to. Eight specific provisions account for the bulk of complaints, adjudications and regulator interventions. Knowing those eight well covers the great majority of operational risk.

What follows is not a substitute for reading the Code itself. It is the working guide I give incoming heads of fundraising on day one, focused on what actually goes wrong.

1. Vulnerable circumstances

The Code requires charities to take steps to recognise when someone may be in vulnerable circumstances and to adjust their approach accordingly. The most-litigated examples in adjudications: an older person being asked for a significant single gift after a short telephone call; a recently bereaved person being added to a regular giving programme without a cooling-off period; a person showing signs of dementia being processed through a face-to-face sign-up.

What good looks like

• Documented training for every fundraiser (in-house, agency or volunteer) on recognising vulnerability.
• A clear escalation path: any concern triggers a senior review before the donation is processed.
• A cooling-off period for significant new commitments (regular gifts, major one-off gifts secured in a single interaction).

2. Frequency and pressure

The Code prohibits unreasonable pressure and requires charities to respect supporter preferences on contact frequency. The line is not specific; the regulator looks at totality.

What good looks like

• A documented contact frequency policy (e.g. no more than X mailings, X emails, X phone calls per year per supporter).
• Suppression promptly applied across all channels when a supporter asks for less contact.
• Records that show you can demonstrate the policy was applied to a specific complainant if asked.

3. Third-party fundraisers and agencies

A charity is responsible for the conduct of any third party fundraising on its behalf. Failures in face-to-face street agencies, telephone agencies and door-to-door operators all land squarely on the charity in adjudications.

What good looks like

• A written agreement with each third-party fundraiser covering Code compliance specifically.
• A right to monitor on the contract, exercised regularly through field visits, recorded call review, and mystery shopping.
• Quarterly review meetings with each agency that include compliance metrics, not just income.

4. Solicitation statements

Where third parties (commercial participators, professional fundraisers, commercial trading subsidiaries) raise funds on behalf of a charity, statutory solicitation statements are required. Most charities know this in principle and forget it in practice for one-off corporate partnerships or product-promotion arrangements.

What good looks like

• A standard solicitation statement template approved by the charity's lawyers.
• A trigger checklist that activates whenever a third party advertises that buying their product will benefit your charity.
• A six-monthly audit that catches any partnerships started without the statement attached.

5. Cause-related marketing and percentage claims

Statements like "10 percent of the price of every can sold goes to charity" carry specific transparency obligations. Vague claims ("a portion of profits will support our work") are increasingly viewed as misleading and have produced public adjudications.

What good looks like

• Every percentage or amount claim verifiable from accounts within 30 seconds.
• A clear statement of the relevant period and total cap on the donation.
• A standing brief to corporate partners on the wording required.

6. Data, consent and the lawful basis

Fundraising data practices intersect the Code with UK GDPR. The most common failure is sliding from "legitimate interests" as a lawful basis into clearly marketing-style activity that should have been consent-based.

What good looks like

• A current data protection impact assessment (DPIA) for any new fundraising activity that touches personal data at scale.
• A clearly documented lawful basis for each channel and each purpose.
• Consent capture wording that the ICO would recognise as compliant (active opt-in, granular, separable).

7. Complaints handling

A charity's ability to handle complaints well is itself a Code requirement. The Fundraising Regulator expects a published complaints procedure, response within set timeframes, and a route to escalate unresolved complaints to the regulator itself.

What good looks like

• A complaints policy published on the website and inside fundraising materials.
• Acknowledgement within five working days, substantive response within 30.
• Annual reporting on complaints volume and themes to the board, not just to the senior management team.

8. Public collections

Cash collections in public places require a public collection certificate or permit in many local authorities. House-to-house collections in particular are heavily regulated and require specific licensing under the House to House Collections Act 1939. Charities sometimes assume their general status covers this; it does not.

What good looks like

• A documented register of every collection planned, with the specific licence or permit attached.
• A briefing for collection coordinators on what the licence does and does not cover.
• A six-monthly review of historical patterns: where collections happen, what permits exist, what is missing.

Most fundraising regulator interventions begin with a single supporter feeling they were treated badly. Investing in the eight provisions above is the single most efficient way to keep that from happening in the first place.

A 90-day code health check

1. Days 1 to 14: read the eight provisions in full from the Fundraising Regulator website. Note the gaps in your current practice.
2. Days 15 to 45: audit your highest-volume channel (usually email or direct mail) against provisions 2, 6 and 7.
3. Days 46 to 75: audit your third-party relationships against provisions 3, 4 and 5.
4. Days 76 to 90: audit your most-public activity (face-to-face, street, public collections) against provisions 1 and 8.

At the end of the 90 days, you will have a defensible position on the parts of the Code that matter most for your charity, a prioritised remediation list, and a credible basis to brief your trustees. The Code is long. The risk concentrates in a manageable number of provisions. Spending the time on those is one of the highest-impact moves a fundraising leader can make.

Related reading: Gift Aid: The Money You Are Leaving on the Table, Writing a Charity Annual Report That People Actually Read and Summer Fundraising When Everyone Is On Holiday.