When “teaching your Grandmother how to suck eggs” becomes a necessity!

Many charities these days are reliant on external fundraisers to host events, run cake stalls, sell raffle tickets, ask people for donation in shopping centres, and while some of these people are paid face to face fundraisers, there are still very many who are volunteers and have been doing the same thing for years and see no reason to change.

When service clubs have long standing agreements with charities, when sporting groups hold fundraising morning teas for cancer, when fundraising events have been held by the same cohort, “we’ve been doing this for years” can translate into “don’t teach me how to suck eggs”.

There is a time, though when new regulations and or technology require an update to processes and organisations have to bite the bullet and audit all of their volunteer activities to ensure that they continue to remain compliant, otherwise it is the organisation’s good name at jeopardy.

A month or so ago, I was in our small local shopping centre in regional NSW – just enough room for a supermarket, butcher, chemist, bottle shop etc and I was stopped by an elderly couple fundraising for large national blood cancer charity.

There were a couple of options to donate, by cash into a sealed container and online via a “square” device. I made a gift by card and had to ask about an acknowledgement.

 I did receive a confirmation of the transaction but not only did it not mention the name of the charity, there was no mention of the tax deductibility of the donation.

So I went back to have a conversation with the lovely couple:

·       They had been doing the same thing for the same organisation for years, through the local service club

·       They had a manual receipt book that they stamped the charity’s name in for cash donations – if asked

·       The online had been set up by a person in the rotary club and they knew nothing about the process.

They were embarrassed (and a little indignant - no-one had called them on this before) when I pointed out that the transaction was under the name of a private person with no mention of the organisation. They assured me that they were on the level and had a folder with printed material stuck in plastic sleeves to “prove legitimacy”. They had a copy of their public liability insurance certificate – necessary for shopping centre approvals – but not a lot of use to anyone querying their bona fides. There was not a current authority to fundraise.

Now, I am very comfortable that they were on the level, just a little out of their depth with new technology. And I am very confident that they would be going home and following up to get everything in order.

But it gave me pause to consider, how do organisations manage that responsibility to ensure that all external fundraisers are trained and up-to-date with the latest information, authorities and compliance processes – especially if the link is through a third party like a service club?

My suggestions would be:

1. Annual Review: Conduct an annual review of all "authority to fundraise" agreements in the marketplace to ensure they are up-to-date and compliant with current regulations.

2. Document Management: Date and/or code all documents used by external fundraisers to ensure that the latest versions are in use.

3. Spot Audits: Perform spot audits of technology and processes used by external fundraisers to identify any compliance issues.

4. Training: Provide in-house training for external fundraisers to ensure they are aware of and understand compliance requirements.

5. Sign-Off Procedures: Implement in-house sign-off procedures for all supporting documentation generated by external fundraisers to ensure accuracy and compliance.