The Code changed at the end of 2025, and the change matters more than most summaries suggest.
The old version listed rules for almost every situation, and charities used it as a checklist. The current one is around 45% shorter and built on four principles instead, using words like appropriate, reasonable and proportionate throughout.
That sounds like less to comply with. In practice it moves the work: you now have to decide what appropriate looks like for your charity, and be able to explain why. For a small charity that’s mostly good news – you were never going to run a large charity’s systems – but it does mean nobody can hand you a list.
If fundraising compliance is one of several things nobody has looked at recently, that’s a governance conversation before it’s a fundraising one.
Who it applies to
The Fundraising Regulator maintains the Code, and it sets the standards for charitable fundraising in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Charities in Scotland should check their own arrangements, as the regulatory route differs.
It is not legislation. It is the standard the Regulator holds fundraising to, and it applies to your charity whether or not you have registered with the Regulator. Registration is voluntary. Complaints about your fundraising can be investigated either way.
It reaches beyond staff, too; volunteers fundraising on your behalf, agencies you hire, and businesses running promotions for you are all covered by standards your charity is accountable for.
The four principles
Legal. Fundraising must meet the requirements of the law – which is broader than the Code itself and includes licensing, gambling, data protection and consumer rules.
Open. Be clear about your processes and willing to explain them when asked.
Honest. Act with integrity and don’t mislead people, including by leaving things out.
Respectful. Respect the people and the places you interact with.
The useful test, when you’re unsure about something and the Code doesn’t answer it directly, is to run it against all four. Most problems fail at least one before anyone reaches for the document.
What proportionate actually means
This is the part small charities get wrong in both directions.
Proportionate does not mean exempt. Every standard applies to you; what varies is what meeting it looks like. Due diligence on a £100 cash donation is not due diligence on a £50,000 legacy.
Proportionate also does not mean improvised. The trade-off for flexibility is that you have to be able to show your reasoning. A decision recorded in a minute, with the reasons, is what turns a judgement call into a defensible one – which is the same standard the Charity Commission applies to trustee decisions generally.
Written down badly beats not written down.
What trustees are accountable for
The Regulator is direct about this: trustees take ultimate responsibility for their charity’s fundraising, and that remains true when the work is delegated to staff, volunteers or an agency.
In practice, that means the board should be able to answer five questions.
What fundraising methods are we currently using? Who is doing it, including anyone outside the charity? What risks does it carry and who is managing them? What complaints have we had, and what changed as a result? And are the licences and permissions we need actually in place?
A board that cannot answer those has delegated the activity and kept the liability.
One thing to check on your own reporting: charities required by law to have their accounts audited must include specific fundraising statements in their annual report under the Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act 2016. Most small charities sit below that threshold – though the audit threshold is moving for financial years ending on or after 30 September 2026, so it’s worth knowing which side of it you’re on.
Not sure whether your fundraising would stand up to a complaint?
The Code is shorter than it was, but it asks more of your judgement, and most small charities have never tested theirs against it. A free Charity Consultation will tell you where the gaps are.
The decisions that have to reach the board
Three, specifically.
Refusing or returning a donation. The Code requires this to be decided by the governing body, or in line with a policy the governing body has set. That’s a real constraint, and most small charities have neither – which is why refusing and returning donations is worth settling before the awkward offer arrives rather than during it.
Agreements with third parties. Anyone fundraising on your behalf for payment, or any business promoting its own sales on the basis that you benefit, brings legal requirements, including written agreements before anything starts. The commercial participator rules are covered in corporate sponsorship.
How complaints are handled. You need a procedure, and trustees need to see what’s coming in. Handling fundraising complaints covers what that looks like at small scale.
Where the Code bites at small charity size
Most of the Code concerns activities you probably don’t do. These are the parts that apply to almost everyone.
Asking honestly. Claims need evidence behind them. Saying £50 buys a wheelchair for a named child creates an obligation you may not be able to meet; saying £50 helps fund wheelchairs for children does not. And if an appeal for a specific thing raises more or less than needed, you should have said in advance what happens to the money.
Your donation page. Processing fees have to be clear before someone enters payment details, not buried in terms. The rest of the page mechanics are in what makes a donation page work.
Contacting people. Who you may email is governed by PECR rather than the Code, and the rules changed in February 2026 – see email marketing. What the Code adds is the expectation that you respect preferences quickly and consistently.
People in vulnerable circumstances. You are not expected to diagnose anything. You are expected to notice when someone may not be able to make an informed decision, and to stop rather than continue. That includes declining a donation and returning one where you later discover the person lacked capacity.
Volunteers. The Code distinguishes people fundraising as your representatives from people fundraising independently in aid of you, and expects different things of each. Both sit alongside the wider duties in volunteer management.
Events, raffles and cash. Licensing, lottery law and the handling of money at events are covered in organising charity events, and the cash controls themselves in financial controls.
Legacies. The most tightly specified area in the Code relative to how often small charities do it. The standards on will information, personal legacies and paying for wills are in charity legacies.
Registering, and whether to
Registration with the Fundraising Regulator is voluntary. Registered organisations pay a levy or a registration fee depending on size, appear in the public directory, and may display the Fundraising Badge.
The argument for it is straightforward: it signals a commitment that funders and supporters can check. The argument against, for a very small charity, is cost against benefit. What registration does not change is whether the Code applies to you – it does either way.
When something goes wrong
Deal with it yourself first. A complaint handled quickly and fairly usually ends there, and the Regulator expects charities to have had the chance.
If the complainant is not satisfied, they can take it to the Fundraising Regulator, which may investigate and publish its findings. Serious matters can be referred to the Charity Commission, which has its own powers.
The pattern the Regulator responds well to is not perfection. It is a charity that investigates properly, says what went wrong, changes something, and can show it.
If your fundraising needs a plan rather than a compliance review, that’s what our marketing and fundraising support is for.
