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Nice to be Nice NI is a group of people interested in non professional

fundraising for charity. Each year we chose a charity to fundraise for,


organising various events and sponsorships. We are volunteers and receive
no payment, commission or remuneration for the fundraising work we do on
behalf of our chosen charity. Any costs incurred whilst organising an event
are covered by our members independent of the fundraising total. We are
not a registered charity and do not on any occasion present ourselves as
such, though we ensure that our chosen charities are recognised under
section 63 of the Charities Act 1992 and/or ROI equivalent.

• Members
• Fundraising Events and Handling of Funds
• Google Adsense
• Event hosts and Sponsors
• Choosing a Charity
• Our Agreement with the Charity
• Contacts
Members

Anyone can become a member of Nice to Be Nice NI. Commitment and


involvement in individual events is entirely up to the member. It can range
from organising and hosting an event, attending an event, taking part in a
sponsored event, promoting an event or receiving our mailings and info.

Membership sign up is by subscription to our mailing list via our Google


Group

nice-to-be-nice-ni@googlegroups.com

with information also available through Facebook, Twitter and Blogger.

We do accept those who are already in paid employment with a registered


charity, but ask that they advise us of this when becoming a member to
avoid a conflict of interests when it comes to choosing the annual charity
(See choosing a charity for further information).

Those members under the age of 18 are asked not to attend events held in
licensed premises after 9pm. Those under the age of 16 are expected to
provide parental consent when engaging in any sponsorship events.

Positions within Nice to be Nice NI are informal. Those who wish to be more
involved in the day to day running and administration should contact co-
founders Rebecca Volley, Sinead Tighe or Natalie Aspin (see contact) for
details how. An annual general meeting will be held each year in March, to
discuss the year’s previous events and the coming years chosen charity. All
members are invited to attend.

Each member can opt to sign up to a monthly email or RSS feed on our blog.
In the interests of saving money and paper we do not offer a regular
equivalent by post. If anyone cannot receive emails but would still like to be
kept up to date, we will publish a quarterly publication that details selected
news and all fundraising account details. This will only be available on
request.
Fundraising and Handling of Funds

Nice to be Nice NI intends to hold numerous fundraising events and take part
in sponsored events throughout the financial year, with the aim of
approximately one each month or twelve per anum. However we understand
that circumstances such as member involvement, venue availability etc may
affect this. As a result we cannot guarantee that the same number of events
will be held each year, though we will always endeavour to meet the
minimum target when possible.

Money raised at each event will be handed over to a trustee or


representative of the chosen charity as soon as possible, ensuring that no
Nice to be Nice NI member is responsible for keeping money for any length
of time. With one exception (see Google Adsense) we do not keep a bank
account into which funds are placed and retained. We therefore request of
our charities that a trustee or representative is present at each fundraising
event, to protect both the charity and fundraiser. When this is not possible
the money will be delivered to the charity the next working day, with suitable
security ensured.

We require a receipt from all our charities, a copy of which will be made
available to anyone on request.

If any donators wish to make a contribution by cheque we will always ask


that the cheque is made out to the charity and never to the individual. Any
members found to be accepting cheques in this manner will find themselves
under investigation and may face fraud charges under the Charities Act.

Nice to be Nice NI members may take part in pre-existing events such as fun
runs etc for sponsorship. Where events already exist with the option of
sponsorship we will encourage our members to adopt the chosen charity,
though they are under no pressure or obligation to do so. We will never
actively campaign against existing sponsorship or fundraising commitments
with other charities.

Sponsorship events specifically organised by Nice to be Nice NI will always


be for the chosen charity and we will ask that other charities respect this.
The only exception will be in the case of emergency and sporadic appeals
(such as Help for Haiti, Comic Relief or similar) where we may organise or
take part in a one off event. In this case we ask our chosen charity to respect
this decision. (See commitment to our Chosen Charity).
Google Adsense

The Nice to be Nice NI blog will feature the Google Adsense and Google
search bar feature. All revenue from this will go to the chosen charity, but
will first be sent in cheque form to a designated member. This is due to the
fact that the name on the account cannot be changed once finalised, and we
wish to repeat the process for the next charity. Each month we will issue the
charity with a copy of the ad revenue calculated by Google so that they can
monitor what they will be receiving. Google only issues cheques on a
monthly basis providing that revenue has reached £60. If the monthly total is
less than this it will carry onto the following months until the total is reached.
While we will encourage our members and site visitors to visit our sponsors,
ourselves and Google will not tolerate ‘clicking circles’ organised to
manipulate ad revenue.

As a courtesy to those businesses and venues that host events and/or


donate prizes we will also endeavour to promote and thank them on our blog
and social networking sites, through ads and links. We will not charge for this
(see below).
Event Hosts, Performers and Sponsors

In order to maintain tax exemption status for our charity we abide by the
Value Added Tax (Fundraising Events by Charities and Other Qualifying
Bodies) Order 2000, meaning that:

The event must be organised and promoted exclusively to raise money for the
benefit of a charity, or another qualifying body. 'Other qualifying bodies'
include a charity’s wholly owned non-charitable trading subsidiary;

The event must be one that can be held for fundraising purposes; these are

• a ball, dinner dance, disco or barn dance;


• performances: for example concerts, stage productions, and other events
which have a paying audience;
• film showings;
• a fête, fair or festival;
• horticultural shows;
• exhibitions - including art, history, science etc;
• a bazaar, jumble sale, car boot sale, or good as new sale;
• games of skill/contests/quizzes;
• firework displays;
• a dinner, lunch, or barbecue;
• an auction of bought-in goods;
• raffles or lotteries.

There is a limit to the number of events of the same kind at any one location in
any one financial year of the charity; no more than 15 events of the same kind
can be held in any one location.

We rely wholly on the generosity of venues that are willing to let us use their
premises free of charge, with no percentage of door tax going to the venue
itself. However as a thank you to those people and businesses who do allow
us the use of facilities or who donate prizes and gifts, offer gratis services
such as design, advertising or printing services etc, we will extend
appreciation and promotion on our websites and social networking sites. This
also extends to the likes of performers, bands, DJs etc.

We also extend advertising right to the venues themselves i.e. they can
promote any event held on their premises through their own media and
publicity department.

We will always ensure that venues and events are sensitive to the charities
and attendees in question, for example, that family orientated or children’s
events are held at suitable times, that sensitive issues such as addiction and
alcohol charities are happy with the event and venue chosen (see
Commitment to Charities).
Choosing a Charity

Each year charities will have the chance to be chosen as our yearly charity.
Anyone can nominate a charity for consideration, members, non members or
the charity itself. In the case that the charity is not aware of its nomination,
we will advise them of this, and provide them with the chance to opt out
should they wish.

Nominations will be requested between the beginning of December and the


end of February, with voting taking place some time in March.

All members, except those in gainful employment with a nominated charity


can vote on the choice of charity, though those members employed in any
charity are not prevented from nominating their own charity.

All charities must be officially recognised in the UK or ROI. We regret that we


cannot accept nominations from individual or personal fundraisers.

In the case of larger charities we may ask for specific projects and schemes
that are in need of fundraising, thus ensuring that money raised is directed
at grass roots level. This may also be the case for charities that already
receive substantial funding from the likes of NHS Trusts or similar.

Members are allowed to protest a chosen charity’s nomination if they


consider it to have been found guilty of any of the following:
• Fraud
• Involvement in terrorism or any sectarian behaviour in the last 25
years
• Links to objectionable groups*

In all cases evidence should be submitted along with the objection. *In the
case of ‘objectionable groups’ we understand that this is of course subjective
and this may be left to members to decide upon voting. We do not accept
objections on religious grounds, unless there is evidence to suggest that
charity has been known to exercise sectarian practices in its work. We would
prefer for all charities to have little to non political affiliation within the UK or
ROI, again this is subjective and not reflective of individual charity
employees.

In the case of our inaugural year (2010/2011), the charity was chosen by
founding, and at the time, only members, Rebecca Volley, Sinead Tighe and
Natalie Aspin.
Our Agreement with the Charity.

Although Part II of the Charities Act 1992 and The Charitable Institutions
(Fundraising) Regulations 1994 specifically discusses a commercial
participator or professional fundraiser acting without an agreement
with the charity, we as non-professional fundraisers will still abide by this
notion. We will always ensure that the chosen charity is aware of their
selection and a notice of commitment to a year long fundraising will be made
between ourselves and the charity. This agreement will be visible at all
events.

We agree the following with every charity that is selected to be our Annual
Charity:

The chosen charity will be given advanced notice of at least 30 days as the nature
of an event so that charities may seek an injunction restraining any other person
raising funds in the name of the charity where:

• the fundraiser is using methods to which the charity objects; or


• the fundraiser is not a fit and proper person to raise funds for the charity;
or
• the charity does not wish to be associated with that fundraising venture.

In this case, at least 28 days before seeking an injunction the charity must give
notice in writing to the person who is raising funds:

• stating that they object to the fundraising on the charity’s behalf;


• giving details of their objection;
• requesting them to cease forthwith; and
• advising them that if they do not comply with the notice, an injunction will
be sought.

When notice periods given by Nice to be Nice are less than the 30 days stated
above we will also revise the objection period for the charity.

Where objections are raised we will do everything in our power to ensure that the
charity is happy with the type of event or fundraising being organized. When an
agreement cannot be made, the event will be cancelled. If persistent objections
and resulting cancellations are made by the charity, Nice to be Nice NI reserves
the right to end it’s relationship with the charity, on consultation with all its
members.

As stated previously, we would ask that whenever possible a representative of


the charity is able to attend a fundraising event to collect the money raised. We
require advance notice of at least 24 hours as to who this person is and they will
be expected to provide identification.

With the exception of Google Adsense, no Nice to be Nice NI member will accept
any cheques made out a personal bank account, nor will they allow any funds to
be lodged into their own accounts.
We also require that the charity provide us with a receipt, either at the time or
within 5 working days of receiving the money. A copy of this receipt will be made
available to anyone on request.

Nice to be Nice NI will promote any events and news that the charity is currently
working on, irrespective of its involvement with our own fundraising projects.
This will be on our blog, social networking groups and newsletters. We advise
that a member of your events, project or promotions team contact us with these
details as and when they take place.

The agreements made with the charity are those of good faith, and not a
legally binding contract or commitment.

Policy developed using fundraising guidelines by the Charity Commission


http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/publications/cc20.asp
Contacts

Group Founders: Natalie Aspin, Sinead Tighe & Rebecca Volley

Email: nicetobeniceni@googlemail.com

Group/Member Contact

nice-to-be-nice-ni@googlegroups.com

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