New calculation method announced for fundraising levy
The Fundraising Regulator has announced changes to the way in which the fundraising levy will be calculated for years four and five of the levy.
- Instead of calculating the levy requested on the basis of the fundraising spend data from the 2014 accounts of a charity, this will now be decided on the basis of the information provided by a charity in its most recently filed accounts.
- Two new bands will be introduced at the lower end of the levy band scale – one for charities with spending on fundraising of between £200,000 and £300,000 per year with a levy of £500, and another for charities with spending on fundraising of between £500,000 and £750,000 per year with a levy of £1,000.
The levy will continue to be calculated on the basis of total fundraising spend, and larger higher education institutions will still be asked to pay £1,000 as their levy. Charities wishing voluntarily to pay the levy and register with the Fundraising Regulator will continue to pay £50, and the costs of registration for non-charitable organisations will remain unchanged.
FPS: less time to action suppression requests from 1 March 2019
In other fundraising related news, charities should be aware that with effect from 1 March this year, they now have only 21 days to action a suppression request received through the Fundraising Preference Service (FPS), rather than the 28 days previously available. The Fundraising Regulator says that it has made the change to try to make it less likely that charities miss the legal deadline to action the request.
So, when a person makes a suppression request through the FPS, they will now be told that the selected charities have 21 days to action the request. After 21 days, the person will be able to make a “follow up” request, if direct marketing materials are still being received by them from the selected charities. The Fundraising Regulator has said that it will then consider complaints from the person who made the suppression request about direct marketing materials they receive from the selected charities 28 days after their initial suppression request was made.
Our content explained
Every piece of content we create is correct on the date it’s published but please don’t rely on it as legal advice. If you’d like to speak to us about your own legal requirements, please contact one of our expert lawyers.