Guidance

Charity fundraising appeals: appeal wording and record keeping

Published 31 October 2022

Applies to England and Wales

Getting your appeal wording right

Charities often run appeals for specific purposes or projects. If you are planning to do that, think carefully about how you word that appeal.

Donations to an appeal for a specific purpose (or purposes) must be used only for that purpose (or purposes).

For example, donations to an appeal to refurbish the charity’s property (such as a village hall or school) can only be used for that purpose.

If you cannot use the donations received for that purpose, or you raise more than you need, you cannot immediately use the funds for something else. You must follow a legal process first.

Donations to an appeal are usually money, but can be property of any kind. For example, goods.

Include a ‘secondary purpose’

If you are fundraising for a specific purpose, think about including a secondary purpose or purposes in your appeal wording. This says how you will use donations if you raise too much or too little, or the charity cannot use the donations as intended.

For example:

“We are raising funds to buy a modern scanner for our animal rescue centre. If we have donations left after the purchase, or we are unable to buy the scanner, we will spend your donations on other equipment for the centre.”

Your secondary purpose should be workable, so that you can achieve it if the main purpose cannot be achieved or you have money left over.

Including a well-thought-out secondary purpose will help you to:

• avoid lengthy and expensive procedures for contacting donors if you do not raise enough money or, for other reasons, you cannot achieve your appeal purpose
• use any leftover donations more quickly and easily
• comply with the Code of Fundraising Practice

Consider broadening your appeal

You can also make a broader appeal for donations.

For example:

“Here is an example of one of our projects. To support this and other projects that we run, please give a donation to our charity.”

Keeping donor and appeal information

Plan how you will keep donor and appeal information before you start your appeal.

Information you should keep:

• donor name, contact details, amount and date received
• how the payment was made, for example, via text or online (if you use an online platform make sure you can contact those donors if necessary)
• letters, emails or other information you collected with the donation
• your appeal literature including any changes made
• any Gift Aid you claim on donations, as you may need to contact HM Revenue and Customs if you return donations
• any conditions attached to a donation (if the donation was not given as an outright gift)

Understand your data protection responsibilities under GDPR.

You will also need this information to follow the required process, detailed in the guidance below, if you are unable to use your appeal donations as intended.

What to do if you are unable to use donations as intended

If you did not include a secondary purpose, you must take specific steps before you can use donations for new purposes. The steps required are set out in our guidance:

• using donations when you have not raised enough money or you cannot achieve your appeal purpose
• using donations when you’ve raised more than you need