Fundraising
Imperial College Union, and therefore all our Clubs, Societies, and Projects, is a charity. It is against the law for charities to donate their own money to other charities, and therefore fundraising by our CSPs for other organisations must follow this process. You cannot use SGI raised through other means; grant given to your CSP; or sponsorship income directly in charitable donations.
Please bare in mind that all sales will be VAT applicable. ICU currently does not offer the option to apply for VAT exemption on any activities.
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Step 1: Get permission from the charity to fundraise for them.
You will need a letter from the charity that explicitly grants your CSP permission to fundraise for them, and includes their bank details and charity number. Generally, you should only raise money for UK-based charities. You can research charities and check whether they are registered via the Charity Commission. If you wish to donate to any organisation without a registered charity number, please discuss with the Activities Team prior to contacting the charity.
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Step 2: Submit an event form for your activity.
This follows our standard event process outlined here and must be submitted at least 10 working days in advance of any financial transactions to allow for approval. In addition to the risk assessment, you must include the letter from the charity in question.
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Step 3: Publicise your activity
All publicity must explicitly state that proceeds will be donated to the charity in question. Evidence of this will be required at a later stage.
There are two typical methods for fundraising:
- Proceeds from the overall activity are donated. On your publicity, you must state that proceeds of this event will be donated to Y Charity.
- A specific portion of sales are donated. Prior to ticket purchase or item purchase, and on relevant publicity, you must state "£X amount of this purchase will be donated to Y charity". You will be required to donate the value £X even if your event is not profitable.
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Step 4: Host your activity & fundraising.
With your activity fully approved by the Union, you can go ahead with fundraising! As with any activity CSPs hold, you are representing the Union, the College, and in this instance your chosen charity, so make sure to act responsibility, courteously, and follow the rules of fundraising. You can read more on the Code of Fundraising Practise from the Fundraising Regulator.
Regarding finances, all transactions for the activity such as ticket sales and item purchases must be completed via eActivities and the Union shop. Any alternative routes of collection require explicit approval from the DPCS and DPFS, as per CSPB Policy.
Some charities offer collection tins or buckets which you can also request; this must be stated and approved in your event form. These buckets should be clearly labelled with the charity name and sealed until given to the charity. Any cash donations taken not with a collection tin must be paid into the Union immediately after the event as detailed in Banking Cash & Cheques.
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Step 5: Donate the proceeds.
You must submit the charity donation via eActivities here, and a retrospective event budget that lists the actual income and expenditure associated with the activity. Please refer to specific transaction numbers, such as purchase orders and banking records. On the charity donation, you must provide evidence of permission to fundraise from the charity, and of your event publicity.
Sponsorship
Sponsorship can be an important source of income for Clubs, Societies & Projects. We've split the sections below to give you guidance on how to get sponsors and the process of submitting your contract to the union. Training pages look at how to go about getting sponsorship and other forms of external funding, and the Union’s rules for how that funding must be administered.
A sponsorship should be thought of as a business partnership and requires a different approach to seeking donations or fundraising. It requires perseverance and open communication with potential sponsors. It should not be thought of as a one-off act to secure funding but a long-term partnership that will benefit the club for now and the future.
Sponsorship can come in many forms and isn’t solely financial. The two models of sponsorship are cash vs contra – cash being the obvious one, with contra or ‘in-kind’ sponsorship being an exchange of goods or services. For example, the Badminton club may seek free or discounted court hire from a local sports center, or Choir may seek free or discounted venue hire for a concert or rehearsals. Many clubs receive contra sponsorship in the form of hospitality, e.g. free food or drink for an event or activity. The difference is essentially boosting your income (cash) vs reducing your expenditure (contra/in-kind).
We pride ourselves on ensuring that we only engage with companies and partners that further the education of all students and do not go against our institutional values. The Principals of Socially Responsible Engagement policy governs which groups ICU aims not to work with. You can read the full policy below.
Sponsorship submission is now done through SUMS - head to your student dashboard and read the full training article.