What must be in place before someone fundraises for us commercially?

England and Wales: This page sets out the position in full, including a change to the thresholds that takes effect on 30 September 2026. Scotland: covered, and in one respect the opposite — a missing signed agreement is itself a criminal offence there, and the fines are capped rather than unlimited; two points are left open for a Scottish practitioner. Northern Ireland: This page is about the statutory rules in England and Wales and in Scotland. Northern Ireland has no statutory regime for professional fundraisers in force — only the Code of Fundraising Practice applies, and it is not legally binding.

Why record the date of solicitation against every response?

Because the thresholds that decide whether a professional fundraiser’s duties apply change on 30 September 2026. The old and new figures run side by side. That follows directly from the transitional rules.

The page applies whenever someone outside the charity is paid to ask for money for it. It also applies when a business tells its customers that part of the price goes to you. Where a business pays you, read the tax side first, when you assess your corporation tax position.

The Charities Acts 1992 and 2011 (Substitution of Sums) Order 2026 takes effect on 30 September 2026. It raises the figures in Part 2 of the Charities Act 1992 (England and Wales). But the old figures do not stop on that date. Both figures are live at the same time, and which one applies depends on the facts of each gift.

The Order has six different transitional bases in article 5. Four of them concern this page:

What changes (Charities Act 1992, England and Wales)	Which figure applies depends on
Who counts as a professional fundraiser (s.58(3))	The date of the solicitation (art 5(1))
The statutory statement trigger (s.60(4)–(5))	The date of the payment (art 5(2))
The lower-paid collector exclusion (s.60B)	The date of the solicitation (art 5(3))
The donor’s right to cancel (s.61)	The date of the solicitation (art 5(4))

Three of the four turn on when you asked. One turns on when the donor paid. Here are the two figures that carry both values today:

• The statement trigger: £100 where the payment was made before 30 September 2026; £150 where the payment is made on or after 30 September 2026.
• The donor’s right to cancel: £100 where the solicitation was made before 30 September 2026; £150 where the solicitation is made on or after 30 September 2026.

So an appeal that runs across 30 September can see the same donation tested two different ways. The worked example on Saltmarsh Trust shows one. Without a record of when each donor was asked, a charity cannot show which figure applied. Log the date of every call, letter or doorstep conversation against the response it produced.

Who counts as a professional fundraiser or commercial participator

Section 58 of the Charities Act 1992 (England and Wales) covers two kinds of third party.

• A professional fundraiser is someone paid to ask for money for your charity — an agency running a telephone or face-to-face campaign, for example.
• A commercial participator is a business that tells its customers that some of what they pay will go to your charity.

A person paid only a small amount can fall outside the definition. The exclusion in s.58(3) covers someone who is paid to ask, not a business whose trade is fundraising, such as an agency. It is worded in three measures: a daily figure, an annual figure and a figure for a single venture. How they combine for a particular person is a question of the section’s wording and their pay.

For solicitations made on or after 30 September 2026, the daily figure is £15. The annual figure is £1,500, and the figure for a single venture is £1,500. For earlier solicitations, lower figures set in 2009 apply. This is the first uprating since then, so older guidance quotes the 2009 figures.

Raising the floor takes people out of the regime. The change reduces obligations rather than adding them, which is easy to misreport.

The agreement: required, but not a crime to miss

In England and Wales, a professional fundraiser or commercial participator may only fundraise for you under an agreement that meets the prescribed requirements. The writing and signature rules are not in section 59 itself. They are in the Charitable Institutions (Fund-Raising) Regulations 1994 (England and Wales), regulation 2(2) for professional fundraisers and regulation 3(2) for commercial participators. The agreement “shall be in writing and shall be signed by or on behalf of” both the charity and the fundraiser.

Missing it is not a criminal offence. This surprises people. Section 59(3) says compliance “shall not be enforceable otherwise than in accordance with this subsection”. That means by an injunction on the charity’s own application. The consequences are civil:

• Unenforceable. The agreement cannot be enforced against the charity, except as far as a court orders (s.59(4)).
• No pay. The fundraiser is not entitled to any remuneration or expenses under it (s.59(5)).

The statutory proof is in the 1994 Regulations (England and Wales) themselves. Regulation 8 makes certain breaches offences. Breach of regulations 2 and 3 is deliberately left off that list.

The 1994 Regulations (England and Wales) were read as made. legislation.gov.uk carries no amendment tracking for them, so a later change cannot be ruled out. Check the current text before relying on the detail.

Your agreement also settles a tax question. Where a business sponsor pays you, HMRC’s guidance says, verbatim: “If, before payment is made by the business sponsor, a commercial participator agreement … is in place, the tax treatment of the payment will be determined by the wording of the agreement. Otherwise, the tax treatment of the payments will be determined on the particular facts of the case.”

So the wording you sign now decides the tax position later. A charity that treats the agreement as a formality is passing up the one chance to settle that by contract. The line between sponsorship and a gift is explained when you assess your corporation tax position.

The statement: this is where the offence is

Section 60 of the Charities Act 1992 (England and Wales) applies when a professional fundraiser or commercial participator asks for money. It requires a statutory statement to the person asked. It covers the charity that benefits and how the fundraiser is paid, in the terms the section sets out. Extra duties apply to appeals on radio, television or by phone, tied to the statement trigger.

Failing to make the statement is a criminal offence. Under section 60(7), it is committed by “the professional fund-raiser or commercial participator concerned” — the third party, not the charity and not its trustees.

The charity comes into it only through section 60(9). Where the fundraiser’s offence is due to “the act or default of some other person”, that person is guilty too. For example, the charity may have given the fundraiser the wrong figure for its pay. So get the figures right, give them in writing, and keep a copy.

The donor’s right to cancel. Section 61 covers a donor who pays at least the cancellation figure after a radio, television or phone appeal. That donor has the right to cancel and get a refund. The figure, and the date test that decides it, are in the section on recording the date of solicitation.

Your own staff and trustees: the one offence that can be yours

Section 60A(8)(b) of the Charities Act 1992 (England and Wales) is the only provision in Part 2 aimed at the charity’s own people. Under it, a trustee, officer or employee of the charity is the defendant. This offence is easy to miss. It has been in force since 1 April 2008.

It covers someone who meets all three tests:

• they are an officer, employee or trustee of the charity
• they are acting as a collector in that capacity
• they are paid for it

When they ask for money, they must say four things:

1. which charities benefit
2. in what proportions
3. that they are an officer, employee or trustee
4. that they are paid

Failing to say them is an offence committed by “the collector concerned”.

Collectors on modest earnings are outside it. For solicitations made on or after 30 September 2026, the exclusion covers someone paid no more than £15 a day, £1,500 a year, or £1,500 for a single venture. Earlier solicitations use the 2009 figures.

Saying “registered charity” when you are not one

Section 63(1) of the Charities Act 1992 (England and Wales) makes it an offence to ask for money while representing that an institution is a registered charity. The offence applies when the institution is not on the register. There is no mental element in the words of the offence.

The Act gives one defence: that the person believed on reasonable grounds that the institution was a registered charity (s.63(1A)). Whether it applies to you is a question for a solicitor.

The trap is not deliberate lying. It is an honest charity printing “registered charity” on an appeal while not on the Charity Commission’s register for England and Wales. That can be an excepted or exempt charity, or a Scottish or Northern Ireland charity fundraising in England. Say exactly where you are registered.

Scotland and Northern Ireland: different regimes

Neither nation follows the England and Wales rules: Scotland has its own statutory regime, and Northern Ireland has none in force.

Scotland: the mirror image

Scotland has its own regime. It is in Part 2 of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Charities and Benevolent Fundraising (Scotland) Regulations 2009. It looks similar and works differently.

A missing signed agreement is itself a crime. Under regulation 2(1) of the 2009 Regulations (Scotland), the agreement must be in writing. It must be signed by or on behalf of both the fundraiser and the charity.

Failing to do that, without reasonable excuse, is an offence under regulation 8(2)(a). That is the opposite of England and Wales.

The 2009 Regulations (Scotland) list what the agreement must contain:

• name and address of each party (reg 2(2)(a))
• the date the agreement was signed by or on behalf of each party (reg 2(2)(b))
• the period the agreement is to subsist (reg 2(2)(c))
• any terms on termination before that period expires (reg 2(2)(d))
• any terms on variation during that period (reg 2(2)(e))
• a statement of the principal objectives and the methods to be used to pursue them (reg 2(2)(f))
• if more than one benevolent body is party to the agreement, provision for determining the proportion each is to benefit (reg 2(2)(g))
• if remuneration or expenses are payable, provision as to the amount and how it is determined (reg 2(2)(h))
• for a commercial participator specifically, provision for determining (i) the proportion of sale/promotional proceeds and/or (ii) the donation sums to be given to the benevolent body (reg 2(2)(i))

The statement has no money trigger. In Scotland, the basic duty to tell donors who benefits and whether the fundraiser is paid applies to every solicitation, however small. It binds the charity itself and its staff too, though not volunteers.

The refund and cancellation right does have a figure: £100. It has not risen alongside England and Wales, because the 2026 Order does not apply in Scotland.

Money must be passed on, with no flexibility. The fundraiser must transfer the money to the charity promptly and within a fixed period. England and Wales lets the two sides agree a different period; the 2009 Regulations (Scotland) do not.

No confirmed floor. The 2005 Act (Scotland) lets Ministers set a pay figure below which a person is not a professional fundraiser, under section 79(3)(e). No figure has ever been found in any regulation. So there is no confirmed floor that takes a small fundraiser outside the Scottish regime.

Two powers to stop fundraising, not one. Section 81(2) of the 2005 Act (Scotland) covers a fundraiser working without a proper agreement. The charity or OSCR may ask the sheriff for an interdict.

Under section 82, where someone is fundraising in the charity’s name with no agreement at all, only the charity may apply, after giving written notice. OSCR’s own standing is the plainest difference from England and Wales, where the Charity Commission cannot seek the equivalent injunction.

Two points are open. First, whether a charity that fails to countersign the agreement could itself commit the regulation 8(2)(a) offence. Regulation 2(1) names both parties as signatories, and the statute does not settle it. Second, whether a pay figure under section 79(3)(e) truly was never set.

Both need a Scottish charity-law practitioner before you rely on either answer. The 2009 Regulations (Scotland) were also read as made, with no amendment tracking.

Northern Ireland: no statutory regime in force

Northern Ireland has near-identical text on the statute book in section 151 of the Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008. It is marked “Prospective”: it has never come into force. And Part 2 of the Charities Act 1992 extends to England and Wales only, however it is sometimes described.

So in Northern Ireland there is no legal written-agreement requirement, no statutory statement duty and no statutory right to cancel. The only constraint is the Code of Fundraising Practice, which is not legally binding. What it asks of you is covered when you register with the Fundraising Regulator and adopt the Code.

Many charities working in Northern Ireland follow the England and Wales rules as good practice. Nothing compels them to.

Checks before a professional fundraiser starts

1. Decide whether they are caught. A professional fundraiser, a commercial participator, or your own paid staff or trustees collecting — or nobody the Act reaches.
2. Check them first. Do proportionate checks on the business before signing anything.
3. Sign the agreement before any fundraising starts. In writing, signed by both sides. In Scotland, check that every item the 2009 Regulations list is covered.
4. Write the statement wording into the agreement. Give the fundraiser your figures in writing, so any default is not yours.
5. Brief your own paid collectors on the four-part statement.
6. Log the solicitation date against every response, from now on.
7. Monitor the arrangement while it runs, including anyone the fundraiser subcontracts to.

Template: Professional fundraiser agreement checklist (planned).

With the agreement signed and the dates being logged, the next step asks whether your trading belongs in a company of its own. That is where you decide whether you need a trading subsidiary.

Common mistake: thinking a missing agreement is a criminal matter

It sounds like the serious failure. In England and Wales it is not. Section 59 of the Charities Act 1992 (England and Wales) is enforced by injunction only (s.59(3)). The agreement is unenforceable against the charity (s.59(4)) and the fundraiser forfeits pay and expenses (s.59(5)).

The writing and signature rules are in the 1994 Regulations (England and Wales), reg 2(2) and reg 3(2). Breach of them is deliberately not a reg 8 offence.

But failing to make the statutory statement under s.60 is a criminal offence, with an unlimited fine. The fundraiser or participator commits it (s.60(7)). The charity or a trustee commits it only where the failure is due to their act or default (s.60(9)). In Scotland, the missing agreement is an offence.

Common mistake: applying one threshold date across an appeal that straddles 30 September 2026

One instrument, one commencement date — it looks simple. It is not. Article 5 of the 2026 Order sets six transitional bases, and the Order applies in England and Wales only.

Four of the bases cover Part 2 of the 1992 Act (England and Wales). Three of those turn on the date of the solicitation and one on the date of the payment. The other two turn on the date of an application and on the financial year end.

Worked example

Saltmarsh Trust hires a telephone fundraising agency, under a signed agreement, for an appeal that runs from September into October 2026. A donor called in September gives in October. The gift is more than £100 but less than £150.

Take the donor’s right to cancel first. Section 61 turns on the date of the solicitation. The call was in September, so the old figure applies. The gift is above it, so the donor has the right to cancel.

Now the statement trigger under section 60. That turns on the date of the payment. The payment was in October, so the new figure applies. The gift is below it.

Same donation, two different tests. Saltmarsh can only show which test applied because the agency logged the date of each call against each gift. That log is now a condition of the agreement.