Fundraising guidelines

Read our guidelines and ensure your fundraising goes as smoothly as possible

Raffles/Lotteries

Small raffles can be held as part of a larger event. The ticket sales and announcing of the results must be held during the event. No more than £500 can be spent on buying prizes and no cash prizes can be given. All tickets should be sold at the same price and no discounts are allowed on bulk buys (for example, five for the price of four). Tickets should not be bought or sold by young people under 16.

There are strict and complex laws relating to raffles and lotteries which do not fall into this category. Full guidelines on raffles and lotteries are available from your local authority or the Gaming Board; these must be followed in full. For details please visit www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk for more information.

Events

Please consider the following guidelines as you plan for your event:

Ensure that your event is organised efficiently and safely.
Conduct a risk assessment to ensure that you have proper plans for the safety of participants. The Health and Safety Executive has further information on how to do this on their website (www.hse.gov.uk). Make sure you have a copy of this on the day of your event.
Ensure that your event is properly and adequately supervised. Where children are involved, this should include:
- providing proper adult supervision
- checking that the child's parents/guardians have given permission for their child to take part
- carrying out appropriate background checks if adults are to have unsupervised access to children
Consider what insurance cover you need for your event. Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity cannot accept any responsibility for your event nor for anyone who participates in it.
Check whether you need any special licences, eg a public entertainment licence or a licence to sell alcohol. Your local council will be able to help you with this.
Always have two people present to count any money raised.

Public collections

All street collections or collections on public property will need to be registered with the local authority and we will require to see a copy of this license before issuing you with collection boxes or buckets.

Young people under the age of 16 (or 18 in London) are not permitted to collect money in public collections.

Please note that we do not authorise door to door collections.

Expenses

Some events require a little bit of expenditure. Make sure that you are aiming to raise at least three times as much as you need to spend, for example if you spend £100 you should aim to raise a minimum of £300. If you think your event expenditure will fall outside of these guidelines please review your expenses or call the Fundraising Team for advice.

Gift Aid

Please ask donors/sponsors to sign a Gift Aid declaration or tick the relevant box on your sponsor form. This enables us (and higher rate tax payers) to claim tax back from the government and increases the overall benefit to the charity.

Fundraising materials and publicity

If you are creating your own publicity materials please make it clear that you are fundraising "in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity". Suggested wording for this would be "[Name of your event] raising funds in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity". Please ensure that you have permission to use any images or text; although some material is available without copyright restrictions on the internet, don't assume that all materials are copyright free.

Company approaches

Always remember that local businesses are often happy to help with fundraising events in their area. If you are approaching any national or international companies for sponsorship, prizes, or auction items then please let us know as we may already be in contact with them which could affect your request.

Are you a company raising money for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity?

If you are hoping to sell goods, services or run promotions using our logo or our name please conact our corporate team for further information on 020 7239 3000.

Sending in your donation

All funds collected should be sent to the charity within six weeks of collection. Please collect all funds together and send them to us in one payment with a monies return form.