# New Irish fundraising regulations published

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/10/03/new-irish-fundraising-regulations-published/
- Published: 2017-10-03T12:32:06+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**The Charities Regulator in Ireland has published a set of fundraising guidelines
which place a large degree of responsibility on the trustees of charities to enforce
standards.**

Trustees of a charity should make sure that the charity takes all reasonable steps
to treat donors fairly, according to the new guidelines, enabling donors to make
informed decisions about any donations.

[The Charities Regulator](http://www.charitiesregulatoryauthority.ie) advises that
trustees of a charity must ensure that:

## Advertisement

 * the charity accurately describes the purpose of any fundraising
 * donations received are used to further the charity’s charitable purpose
 * where donations are made for a specific purpose, the donor’s request is honoured

The guidelines say fundraising by third party agents should be the subject of a 
written contract while volunteers should be given training in whatever fundraising
technique they are involved in.

Fundraisers, the guidelines say, must ensure that fundraising materials do not imply
that money fundraised is for a restricted purpose (such as assisting a particular
person or animal) when it may be used for different purposes or for general funds.

The guidelines cover a range of issues including:

 * donors
 * donations
 * the responsibilities of trustees
 * management
 * fundraisers
 * financial transparency and accountability.

## About the Charities Regulator

The Charities Regulator is Ireland’s national statutory regulator for charitable
organisations. An independent authority it was established on 16 October 2014 under
the Charities Act 2009. 

Its primary functions are to establish and maintain a public register of charitable
organisations operating in Ireland and ensure their compliance with the Charities
Acts.

Michael Ring, Minister for Rural and Community Development, said better regulation
would “get rid of the rogues that caused the problems in relation to charities in
this country”. 

He told the Irish Times: “I won’t speak on any individual case today but we were
all disappointed with what we saw happening over the last number of years”.

 * **[Fundraising Regulator seeks Board Member for Northern Ireland](https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/10/09/fundraising-regulator-seeks-board-member-for-northern-ireland/)**(
   9 October 2017)
 * **[New rules now in effect for conversion of charitable companies into CIOs](https://fundraising.co.uk/2018/01/03/new-rules-now-effect-conversion-charitable-companies-cios/)**(
   3 January 2018)
 * **[Baroness Stowell to focus on charity behaviour in speech setting out Commission’s new strategy](https://fundraising.co.uk/2018/10/04/baroness-stowell-focus-charity-behaviour-speech-setting-commissions-new-strategy/)**(
   4 October 2018)

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