How we govern ourselves and spend our money
Some frequently asked questions
Some frequently asked questions
Some frequently asked questions
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How are charities governed?
Q. How are charities governed?
A. Charities are usually registered with the Charity Commission and/or the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR), have a governing document and a trustee body.
The Charity Commission is established by law as the regulator and registrar for charities in England and Wales. In Scotland, OSCR has similar responsibilities to the Charity Commission.
The Charity Commission / OSCR fulfils this role by securing compliance with charity law, dealing with abuse and poor practice and enabling charities to work better within an effective legal, accounting and governance structure. They have powers to intervene in a charity to protect its assets where a formal investigation establishes serious mismanagement or abuse.
Every Charity must have a governing document setting out the charity's objects and usually how it is to be administered.
It may be a trust deed, constitution, memorandum and articles of association, rule, conveyance, will, Royal Charter, Scheme of the Commissioners or other formal document.
Every Charity must have a trustee body constituted in accordance with the governing document. Charity trustees are unpaid volunteers – there are some exceptions in Scotland - who under the charity's governing document are responsible for the overall control of the charity and ensuring that it is properly managed.
The trustees of all charities are under a duty to ensure that the charity keeps proper books and records, and that annual accounts are prepared. In many cases, the trustees must also prepare an annual report. Trustees must ensure that the accounts are subjected to external scrutiny, if that is required by legislation or by the charity's governing document. It is the trustees' responsibility to formally approve the charity's annual report and accounts. -
How is fundraising regulated? Is it licensed in any way?
Q. How is fundraising regulated? Is it licensed in any way?
A. Registered charities are regulated by the Charity Commission and/or OSCR in Scotland. There are laws about many aspects of charity fundraising and local authorities grant licences to collect in public places. New legislation in Scotland, England and Wales aims to make all aspects of charitable activity much clearer.
Charities are usually registered with the Charity Commission and/or OSCR
Look for the charitable registration number for charities. It should be printed on all fundraising materials. All charities have to be registered by the Charity Commission and/or OSCR. Charities set up in England or Wales are usually registered with the Charity Commission, which is the regulator and registrar for these charities. The Charity Commission is responsible for establishing charity status and securing compliance with charity law. The Charity Commission can look into wrongdoing by charities and has powers to make charities do what they're supposed to legally do. From Spring 2006, OSCR will take on similar functions to the Charity Commission, with the power to grant and remove charitable status.
Most charities have to produce accounts. All registered charities in England and Wales have to produce accounts and charities with a gross annual income over £10,000 have to send their accounts to the Charity Commission. In Scotland, all charities – regardless of income – have to produce annual accounts. Where a charity has an income of over £100,000 an audit is required. For those under £100,000 an independent examination is required.
New charity legislation will make charitable activity clearer. There is legislation in the pipeline which aims to clarify what constitutes charity. New legislation was passed by the Scottish Parliament in 2005. This will also develop a new licensing system to cover public collections such as street and door-to-door fundraising. -
How do I tell the difference between a genuine fundraiser and a bogus one?
Q. How do I tell the difference between a genuine fundraiser and a bogus one?
A. There are some simple information checks you can make to protect yourself against bogus fundraisers.
Check the registration number or phone them back. If an organisation or individual purporting to raise money for charity approaches you, check that they have a charity registration number. If you want to support the charity, but still feel uncertain, ask for a phone number and contact them. From December 2005, you can also refer to 'Guidestar', an online listing of charities which outlines their objectives and their financial status.
Check a street fundraiser's credentials. Street fundraisers will be wearing clothing bearing the charity logo, have an identity badge and, in some cases, a letter from the charity stating that they are paid to recruit new supporters on the charity's behalf. -
Why do you prefer people to make regular gifts?
Q. Why do you prefer people to make regular gifts?
A. Regular gifts mean charities have a consistent, predictable income, so we can plan and budget better and therefore be more efficient.
Regular gifts give long-term security and enable short-term response. They give security and confidence to react to situations as soon as they arise; and the income to carry on with our work whether issues are receiving media coverage or not.
Regular gifts mean less spent on support costs. Regular gifts also mean lower support costs and cheaper bank charges so that more of your money goes to our work.
Ongoing support helps us recoup the higher costs of securing new donors. Securing new donors' support is crucial to allow the charity to keep functioning. However, there is a certain cost associated with reaching those donors. If people commit to giving regularly for a year or more, charities will recoup those costs. -
How do the different types of fundraising compare?
Q. How do the different types of fundraising compare?
A. Each charity has its own criteria for judging the effectiveness of different types of fundraising. Essentially, charities judge fundraising by return on investment over time but each charity has to evaluate the audiences it wants to address and what will appeal to them.
Charities look at return on investment over time. At the most basic level this is the return on the investment made over a certain period. Although some forms of attracting new supporters won't make a positive return on investment in 12 months, the charity will have established that the returns over a longer period are such that this is justified.
Every charity has to evaluate the audiences it wants to appeal to. Clearly some forms of fundraising have a better return on investment (even with varying periods to judge returns) than others. Some reasons why charities do not only invest in the fundraising activity that gives the best return are:Some methods will have the potential to raise a much higher volume of income than others, although they may have a lower return on investment;
The charity has made the decision to spread the risk among a number of types of fundraising in case some of them fail to be as effective over time;
Some types of fundraising generate gradual but continuous growth over time, whereas others just provide a one off injection of cash;
Different audiences can be accessed using different methods. Charities have to evaluate on an individual basis which audiences they want to address and who might be interested in supporting their work.
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How much of my donation goes on fundraising and administration?
Q. How much of my donation goes on fundraising and administration?
A. We're quite clear about how much goes on fundraising and support. Like any other kind of organisation, charities have support and income-raising costs to ensure their existence and effectiveness.
We are constantly working to maximize the money going to our conservation action around the world – whether it's paying for highly skilled field conservationists, or professional lobbyists in the corridors of power.
More than 180,000 charities in the UK complete with us for your funding and attention, so we also invest in communicators and fundraising staff to keep the spotlight on the vitally important work we are doing and ensure the money keeps flowing in.
Fundraising costs ensure we survive. In order to secure income to achieve our work it is necessary to spend money on communicating our need for funds. These fundraising costs vary depending on who the organisation is asking (government, private individuals, companies or foundations). We seek to raise funds from a variety of sources in order to maximise the amounts of money raised and reduce reliance on a small number of funders, who could pull out leaving the charity in difficulty.
Support costs ensure we are effective. To ensure as much money as possible goes to the cause, charities have to be efficient and manage their organisations very effectively. The support costs spent on IT, HR, finance, planning and project management ensures the charity's infrastructure supports its aims and delivery. -
A lot of charity fundraising is intrusive - ringing people at home, stopping people in the street. Why don't you just advertise in the press?
Q. A lot of charity fundraising is intrusive - ringing people at home, stopping people in the street. Why don't you just advertise in the press?
A. We know from experience that press advertising is cost-effective in some but not all circumstances. In a 'multi-channel world' where people get their information in all sorts of ways, we can't afford not to cover as many bases as possible.
WWF has decided not to use street fundraising because of its ineffectiveness and high fall off rate by those who sign up. We use the phone for existing donors or those who have already expressed an interest in WWF
We do try to target communications to reach those people most likely to be interested in our work, but this is not an exact science. Experience has shown that if charities don't ask people for support using different methods it is much less likely that we will be able to raise the funds necessary to our work.
In our multi-channel world we can't afford to miss out. In addition, different people get their information from different places; not everyone can be reached using the press, so we would risk not communicating with potential supporters. Ultimately, we have to deal with people the way they are. People are different so respond to different things. Some are visual, some are aural, and so our fundraising methods need to take this into account. -
Why do you employ a marketing agency to produce your donor appeals?
Q. Why do you employ a marketing agency to produce your donor appeals?
A. We believe the work we do is important so we need to ensure that we can communicate this clearly and effectively to people to get support and raise awareness. We therefore feel it is important to invest in these communications so that we have the best chance of attracting a response.
One way of doing this without having the costs of a permanent marketing function covering all professional specialisms is to buy in expertise as and when needed. This expertise will be experienced in delivering communications enabling the charity to benefit from best practice to ensure its communications are effective and provide as good value for money as is possible.
Marketing and donor campaigns are set specific financial and public awareness targets by which their effectiveness can be measured to ensure that money isn't wasted. -
Where else does WWF get its money from?
Q. Where else does WWF get its money from?
A. To minimise the risk, we seek our funds from a variety of sources, which is the case for most charities. You can check this information in our annual report, which is published as part of the charity's financial reporting obligations.
We have to seek funds from a variety of sources. Most charities get the bulk of their income from private individuals giving modest amounts. In order to spread risk and maximise income, we try to ensure that we don't have just one funding source. Our annual report shows the percentage split of our fundraising income. Other charities get their income from similar sources, as well as charity shops, statutory funding, gifts and promotional income from companies and their employees and donations from trusts and foundations. -
What do you do with the money that I give to WWF?
The way we spend the money pledged to WWF can be broken down as follows (figures from the 2008 Annual Review):
* 79% is used directly for conservation programmes and field projects, campaigns, education and raising awareness of environmental threats
* 20% is used to support our fundraising efforts - mainly TV and other advertising and membership publications. This is an essential and efficient investment, because for every pound we devote to fundraising, we generate a further £4 as a result.
* the other 1% is spent on 'governance and monitoring systems' - basically the kind of legal and accounting costs all large companies and charities have to allow for.
You can be sure we're always looking at ways of cutting our administrative costs and overheads wherever possible, especially in tight financial times.
You'll find more details of specific WWF projects and activities in our most recent Annual Review