The Fundraising Regulator has today sent letters to the 62 biggest fundraising charities asking them to pay its levy, with invoices to follow requesting payment within 30 days.
Over the next few weeks, some 2,100 charities in England and Wales will receive letters from the Regulator giving them formal notice of how much they will be expected to pay. The letters will go out in six phases, starting with those charities with the largest fundraising spend.
The levy will apply to all charities that spend more than £100,000 a year on fundraising, as shown in their annual returns filed with the Charity Commission for the year ending 31 December 2014. It will be 'stepped', with those that spend the most charged the most.
The letter tells the charities that although the levy system is a voluntary one, the Regulator expect charities to pay up. It reminds them that the Charity Commission has confirmed that payment of the levy is a “proper expense for a charity to incur” and that the government gave itself reserve powers to enforce payment should it need to.
The levies collected by the Regulator – budgeted to be around £2.5m a year - will be used to set standards, adjudicate on complaints about fundraising from members of the public and develop the Fundraising Preference Service.
The letter tells the charities that the annual levy will apply for three years in the first instance. It also explains that in the years 2017 and 2018, invoices will go out in June for payment in July.
It said that invoices are being sent a little later this year “to give everyone more time to get the practicalities right and to make full use of our start-up funds”.
In a statement announcing that the letters are being sent, the Fundraising Regulator’s chair, Lord Grade (pictured), said: “Our regulatory role and the restoration of public confidence will only be successful if the sector is ready to fund its self-regulation, working with us constructively to deliver the necessary changes.”
Some 45 of the 50 charities that were asked to provide seed funding to set up the new Regulator did pay it, and today the chief executives of both the Institute of Fundraising and NCVO said the new system of independent self-regulation had the support of the fundraising community.
The IoF’s Peter Lewis said: “We are certain that charities will want to show their commitment to high standards by registering with the Regulator.”
NCVO’s Sir Stuart Etherington said: "It is an important signal that charities themselves will fund the new Fundraising Regulator that has more powers and is responsible for upholding tighter standards. I hope that charities will support this work.”
The letter also mentions that the new Fundraising Preference Service is likely to be introduced in spring 2017, and that additional funds may be required to operate this.
“Once we know more about the numbers of people signing up to it and therefore how many charities will need to access the lists of people opting out of future fundraising contact from charities, we will be able to estimate future income from fees to meet the running costs of the FPS.”
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