9.Fundraising communications and advertisements

You must meet the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct and Promotional Marketing (CAP Code) and the UK Code of Broadcast Advertising (BCAP Code) and make sure all advertisements are legal, decent, honest and truthful.

You must be able to show that you have taken all reasonable steps to make sure that communications are suitable for the people they are aimed at.

Your marketing communications must not contain anything that is likely to cause serious or widespread offence. You must take particular care to avoid causing offence on the grounds of race, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation or disability. This will vary according to the context, type of communication, audience, product and commonly accepted standards of decency at the time of the communication.

Your marketing communications must not contain anything that is likely to cause fear or distress without a justifiable reason. If you can justify it, the fear or distress likely to be caused must not be excessive.

You must not use a claim or image that some people may find shocking merely to attract attention. If you use images that some people may find shocking, you should give warnings about this material.

You must make sure literature includes all information that you have to include by law, for example, registered charity status or number, full company name and registered office if this applies.

If you are fundraising in partnership with one or more charitable institutions, you must state how the money will be split between the organisations.

If you change any of the details in case studies or use real examples to inspire a case study, you must make this clear and you must be able to prove that the case study is representative of a real situation.

You must be able to justify how often you contact people, balancing the need to communicate with not overwhelming or bombarding people.

You must meet trademark and copyright law and make sure that you get permission to use images, logos and so on from the people or organisations who hold the rights to these.

You must make sure that your business letters, order forms and website state:

• your registered company’s full name (even if elsewhere you also use an abbreviated or ‘trading name’);
• your company number;
• the place of registration of your company (for example, England and Wales or Scotland);
• the address of your registered office (if more than one address is mentioned, it must be clear which is the registered office); and 
• that the charitable institution is a limited company if your name does not include the word ‘Limited’.

If the names of your directors are included on your company letterhead (which is not compulsory), you must name all the directors.

You must also give your company’s full registered name on all notices and other official publications, all cheques, bills of exchange, promissory notes (a signed document promising to pay a stated amount to a certain person on a stated date or when asked) and endorsements, all orders for money, goods or services, all invoices and other demands for payment, receipts and credit notes, all applications for licences to carry out a trade or activity, and all other types of business correspondence and documents.

As well as keeping to standards in Section 3 Processing personal data (information), you must not send direct marketing mailings to people who have registered with the Mailing Preference Service (MPS) if you cannot show any evidence of a previous relationship with that person.

You must consider whether a person has registered with the MPS as part of your assessment as to whether you have a legitimate interest if you are planning to process a person’s data for direct marketing purposes under the legitimate interest condition.

You must be able to prove that the purpose of an enclosure was to strengthen the message or to involve the person emotionally in the cause, and not to encourage them to donate mainly because of financial guilt or to cause embarrassment. 

You must consider whether any enclosures are safe for the person receiving them.

You must not use enclosures that might cause inconvenience when delivering them, unless the donor knows about them or has asked for them.

If you are carrying out live fundraising phone calls, you must be able to show that you are meeting the legal requirements of the TPS.

You must not make marketing phone calls to the following people.

• Anyone who has registered with the TPS or CTPS, unless that person has told you that they agree to receiving direct marketing calls from you for the time being.
• Anyone who has asked you to stop or not begin direct marketing, as outlined in section 3 Processing personal data (information).

You must have a written agreement in place which states that subcontractors must meet relevant data protection legislation and PECR.

You must not call anyone using an automated dialling system unless that person has agreed to this.

You must not call anyone you know is under the age of 16.

You must not generate telephone fundraising calls by dialling random numbers, whether dialling is done manually or by computer.

You must not claim that marketing calls are administrative calls.

You must make every fundraising call using a phone number which can be identified by the person receiving it and which they can return the call to.  

You must not make automated phone calls to people unless you have their consent.

You must not make calls after 9pm, except to people who have asked you to call after this time.

You must give your name and the name of the charitable institution you are fundraising for when making a direct marketing call.

If the phone call is your first contact with a donor, you must ask if they are happy for you to contact them at that time. If they ask you not to call again, you must not do so.

If the person asks for one, you must provide a valid business address or freephone number that they can use to contact you.

If you use a professional fundraiser to ask for donations by phone, they must give the identity of the charitable institution they are making the call for, along with a solicitation statement.

You must avoid persistent misuse of an electronic communications network or service to contact donors (including making silent or abandoned calls).

You must make clear that you are asking for financial or other types of support.

You must not ask for a financial contribution more than three times during a fundraising phone call.

You must make the purpose of the call clear if you are leaving a voicemail.