Organise charity fundraising

Students' Union UCL, and therefore your club or society, is a charity. It is against the law for charities to donate money directly to other charities straight from your Club or Society account. However you can raise money for a charity through an event and this how to guide explains how you go about doing that.

Before you begin fundraising, you must ensure that the charity you wish to fundraise for has a registered UK Charity Number and is listed on the Charity Commission Website. Please note, the Union does not allow fundraising for non-UK registered charities.

Step 1

Ask the charity you want to raise money for, to write you a letter explaining that they give you permission to fundraise for them. This letter of permission must be from the beneficiary organisation (on headed paper) permitting your club/society (clearly named) to fundraise on their behalf and confirming the organisation’s full name and charity number and bank details for payment.

You will need to submit this through the Activity Registration Form for the event/collection that you wish to hold.

Step 2

If you are holding a fundraising event you will need to submit an Activity Registration Form within the appropriate deadlines. Make sure the venue you are holding the event is booked. If you need further guidance on how to hold an event please check out our Organising Activities and Events page.

If you are holding a fundraising collection (fundraising on the street or in a public space) you must obtain a licence from the local council prior to the event date. You can apply for this on the first day of the month before the collection is due to take place. In most cases, the charity will help you, so ask if they can. If you are raising money on private property (e.g. on the underground or in a supermarket) you must ask the company/owners directly for permission. For more information on this please contact us at [email protected]. 

All publicity and/or tickets should clearly state on them who you are fundraising for.

Step 3

If you are holding a fundraising event, once your event and forms have been approved you are able to move forward with running the event.

If you are holding a fundraising collection - and you have acquired the permission/licence to fundraise from the council/company/owners - you are now able to submit the relevant forms for the event. Please refer to Step 2 for Activities and follow the procedure as if you were hosting a fundraising event. 

You must ensure that you bring all money that has been raised at the event to the Clubs & Societies reception to be banked within 24 hours (or the next working day). The office hours for banking money is 10am - 1pm every Monday to Friday. You can find them on the 2nd floor, 15 Gordon Street, WC1H 0AH.

Step 4

Once you have banked all the donations into your club or society account, please submit a Purchase Request Form with the charity's details on it and the money will be paid to them directly via a BACS Transfer.

Charity buckets and collection tins:

Most charities should provide with buckets and collection tins. If your charity does not, the Finance Department have buckets and tins available. You should ask for these in advance of the event (at least one week). When collecting money - ensure you have the charity name/sticker clearly written on any buckets or tins. Although it makes it more fun to do collections in fancy dress etc, a maximum of 10% of the total collection can be spent on expenses such as costumes.

There are also further limitations on what you can do when fundraising on the street:

• Each collector must be 25m apart.
• Collectors cannot walk up and down the street
• You cannot have animals with you
• You may not shake or rattle the tins

JustGiving

You can also set up a JustGiving page via the Union, to create a fundraising page, you will need to follow these steps:

• Once you have submitted your Activity Registration Form and it has been approved, we will send you the link to our JustGiving Page.
• Select 'Raise money for us'
• Select 'Make your page'
• Log in or create a JustGiving account
• Select the type of event you're taking part in - taking part in an organised event, doing a personal challenge....
• Finalise your selection - choose your JustGiving web address.

Please note our Finance team will automatically review this when you set it up and provide approval

There's also a video which takes fundraisers through creating their pages.