Handle News of the World advertising opportunity with care, says Institute
Howard Lake | 8 July 2011 | News
The Institute of Fundraising has advised its members to be cautious in deciding whether to take up the News of the World’s offer of free advertising to charities and causes in the final edition of the newspaper this Sunday.
It reminded members this morning that they should bear in mind its Acceptance or Refusal of Donations Code of Fundraising Practice before making a decision.
The Code explains that charities require a clear policy on the acceptance or refusal of donations is important for all charitable organisations. “Such a policy needs to be acceptable to all those associated with the charity and agreed formally by a charities’ trustees”, explained the Institute in a statement today, adding: “The decision as to whether a charity ought to accept a donation or not should be grounded in its mission and policy objectives”.
Charities including the Royal British Legion and Beatbullying have already publicly severed their links with the News of the World, but those were for corporate partnerships rather than straight commercial advertising.
The Code can be viewed or downloaded (in PDF) from:
www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk/Resources/Institute%20of%20Fundraising/Codes/Acceptance%20and%20Refusal%20of%20Donations%20-%20LRC%20May%202011.pdf
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.