The guidance comes alongside supermarkets and retailers.
The UK’s Fundraising Regulator has published advice for supermarkets and retailers that will help ensure safe, secure, and responsible fundraising for collections happening on their premises.
Since July 2024, the Fundraising Regulator has been convening a working group of leading supermarkets and retailers, including Sainsbury’s, Aldi, Lidl, Asda, Co-op, Morrisons, Waitrose, and Tesco – assessing their needs and challenges and incorporating their feedback into the advice published today.
The advice will help to strengthen and increase the consistency of charity collection procedures across retailers to reduce the divergence in individual company policies that bad actors can exploit, and is intended to help shoppers give with confidence in the knowledge that the money taken at collections is properly accounted for and will go to those in need.
The guidance includes advice for individual stores to have a named manager responsible for collections, provides information to supermarkets on the different types of organisations which may carry out collections, recommends a series of checks to undertake on any organisation asking for permission, and advises implementing one of two clearly-defined processes for checking and banking customer donations.
Jim Tebbett, the Fundraising Regulator’s head of proactive regulation, said: “Our role as an impartial, non-statutory, regulator has been a great help during this process. Although retailers typically function in a competitive environment, all the group’s participants approached this issue with openness, candour, and the spirit of collaboration necessary for the agreement of a set of common standards.
“We’re a trusted convenor, and we’re grateful to the retailers who have worked with us throughout this process to help the public to give with confidence.”
Retailers in the UK provide vital support for charitable causes. Including checkout micro-donations, direct donations (money and goods), payroll giving and corporate partnerships, the total value of charitable giving by retailers in 2022/23 was estimated to be equivalent to over half a billion pounds (£540 million).
Retailers are also an important venue for ‘private site’ fundraising – many charities benefit from being able to raise funds in a way that is convenient and highly visible to the public.
The proactive work that the Fundraising Regulator has therefore undertaken will help to maintain public trust and confidence in charitable giving and protect the reputation of charities and retailer partners.
Donors need to be confident that their money is going to a genuine cause. They must not be pressurised or misled, and should be provided with enough information to make an informed choice about whether or not to give.
While primary responsibility for compliance with the Code of Fundraising Practices rests with the fundraiser, the advice provides retailers with a toolkit to help them ensure that the highest possible standards in fundraising are maintained on their sites.
Sainsbury's director of sustainability, Ruth Cranston, said: “With over 600 Sainsbury’s supermarkets in the UK, we know the positive impact that in-store fundraising has on the local communities that we serve.
“Our colleagues and customers are so supportive of in-store fundraising efforts and we want to do everything we can to support them, in supporting the causes they care about. That’s why we’ve worked with the Fundraising Regulator and other retailers to advocate for clearer guidance to help the supermarket sector ensure that charity collections are delivered securely for our customers and charities. We are delighted to see the publication of this advice.”
Matthew Field, Head of the Fraud Advisory Panel, added: “The Fraud Advisory Panel is delighted to support the charitable cash collections initiative and is proud to be working alongside the Fundraising Regulator, supermarkets and the charity sector in the fight against fraud.
“Cash collections are a valuable source of income for charities that rely on the generosity of the public to support good causes. This type of fundraising helps raise awareness of charitable objectives and provides crucial income that allows the sector to then help others.
“The support of supermarkets is a hugely positive step forward and will make a significant difference in tackling economic crime. Preventing charity fraud is a primary objective for the Fraud Advisory Panel and we look forward to working with the industry and Fundraising Regulator to continue this initiative.”
