How is charity (and CIC) fundraising regulated?

Towards the end of 2025 the revised Code of Fundraising Practice came into full force. Since 2016, the Code has been the responsibility of the Fundraising Regulator and has been through several revisions.

The code is not legally binding. It outlines what the Fundraising Regulator expects of those carrying out fundraising activities that are covered by the Code, including links to specific legal requirements and other codes of practice relevant to fundraising (such as street/private-site collections, lotteries/raffles, professional fundraisers, commercial participators, advertising and marketing, data protection etc.).

The Code is fairly simple to navigate and establishes both principles and “rules" for specific fundraising channels. Disappointingly, it says nothing of substance about the use of AI in fundraising and it still feels like it is mostly written with large charities in mind.

The Fundraising Regulator itself is the independent regulator of charitable fundraising in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It maintains the Code, investigates complaints about charity fundraising, maintains a register of all organisations that have registered with it and manages the Fundraising Preference Service, which allows people to opt out of fundraising communications. It is funded by voluntary levies and registration fees paid by charities and other fundraising organsiations. It automatically invoices charities that spend more than £100,000 a year on fundraising who it expects to pay the levy (although it cannot require them to pay).

The Fundraising Regulator has no powers to impose formal sanctions on organisations that do not comply with the Code but it publishes investigation reports, can refer cases to relevant statutory regulators and can remove an organisation from its director and stop them using its Fundraising Badge (a kind of kite mark for fundraising).

Therefore, the Fundraising Regulator largely relies on the impact a negative investigation report can have on an organisation’s reputation and future fundraising. This can be a powerful tool and should not be underestimated by charities and other fundraising organisations.

There are other legal requirements for charities whose accounts are subject to statutory audit (broadly those with annual income is over £1m - soon to raise to £1.5m - or with substantial assets). The Charities (protection and Social investment) Act 2016 requires all charities subject to statutory audit to include a statement in its annual report about key aspects of fundraising activity, including:

• The approach taken to fundraising.

• Whether the charity is subject to any regulation (such as the Code of Fundraising Practice) whether it has failed to comply in any way.

• How it monitors fundraisers.

• The number of complaints received.

• Steps taken to make sure vulnerable people are protected.  

Recent research by the Fundraising Regulator found that only 56% of a sample of relevant charity annual reports fully complied with these legal requirements.

In addition, the Charity Commission has issued statutory guidance on the role of trustees in fundraising, i.e. their fundraising governance responsibilities.

In summary, there are relatively few direct statutory fundraising regulations, particularly for small charities. There are several legal requirements for specific aspects of fundraising, statutory guidance on the role of trustees and the Fundraising Regulator oversees a voluntary self-regulation regime for the charity sector. Taken together these offer a robust regulatory environment that charities and fundraising organisation should always seek to comply with to avoid reputational and other risks.

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Want to find out more? Contact us at julian@almondtreeconsulting.co.uk to discuss your organisation’s needs.