Follow the Code of Fundraising Practice and your trustee duties

If your charity raises money from the public, you must follow the Code of Fundraising Practice and meet your trustee duties under Charity Commission guidance CC20. This applies whether your own staff and volunteers raise the money or you work with a professional fundraiser or commercial participator.

The current Code of Fundraising Practice took effect on 1 November 2025 and applies across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Fundraising Regulator owns and maintains the code and handles complaints for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Complaints about a Scottish-registered charity's fundraising go to the Scottish Fundraising Adjudication Panel instead, hosted by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) in Dundee.

Your trustee duties under CC20

CC20 sets out 6 duties you must meet whenever your charity fundraises. These duties apply to fundraising by your own staff and volunteers, and to fundraising carried out on your behalf by a third party.

In practice, meeting these duties means your board oversees fundraising activity rather than leaving it unsupervised, checks that any third-party fundraiser's conduct meets the code, and reviews complaints and incidents so it can act quickly if something goes wrong.

Working with a professional fundraiser or commercial participator

If you engage a professional fundraiser or commercial participator to raise money on your behalf, you need a written agreement in place before fundraising starts, and the fundraiser must give donors a solicitation statement before they give money or financial details.

There is no equivalent statutory professional-fundraiser regime in Northern Ireland. If you fundraise there, you can still choose to follow the England and Wales or Scotland statutory requirements as good practice, and you should follow the Code of Fundraising Practice, which applies UK-wide.

Disclosing fundraising in your trustees' annual report

If your charity is subject to statutory audit, you must include an additional fundraising statement in your trustees' annual report. This has applied to financial years beginning on or after 1 November 2016.

The statutory audit thresholds that trigger this disclosure are rising under the Charities Acts 1992 and 2011 (Substitution of Sums) Order 2026. If your financial year ends before 30 September 2026, the current thresholds apply; if it ends on or after that date, the higher thresholds apply.

Data protection and direct-marketing appeals

Fundraising communications by post, email, text or phone are direct marketing under data protection law, and the same rules apply to a charity campaigning for funds as to a commercial marketer.

Check the Fundraising Preference Service, Mailing Preference Service and Telephone Preference Service before you contact a supporter without their specific consent. The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 added a charitable-purposes soft opt-in for electronic marketing and a new lawful basis called recognised legitimate interest, alongside the existing UK GDPR bases. Take advice on which basis applies to a specific campaign rather than assuming consent is always required.

What next

Review your existing fundraising agreements against the code, confirm your trustees' annual report includes the fundraising statement if your charity is auditable, and check your supporter contact processes against the suppression lists before your next appeal. Consider registering with the Fundraising Regulator if your charity spends over £100,000 a year on fundraising.