When it comes to fundraising finances, there are several areas that you must ensure you understand.
See Group Handbook B4: Managing your finances
Gift Aid
This is the tax charities can reclaim from HMRC on money donated by UK taxpayers. For every £1 donated you can claim an extra 25p, so make sure you take advantage of this.
Claiming Gift Aid on sponsored activities
Our sponsorship forms include everything you need to collect Gift Aid on sponsorship for either a national or group fundraising activity. Don't forget to add your details to the group sponsorship form.
Corporate sponsorship and VAT
Raising funds by selling advertising space in an MS Society newsletter, or putting a company logo on MS Society material isn’t normally acceptable. This is because partnering with a business can have implications for VAT and MS Society trading.
You can acknowledge a donation in an MS Society newsletter as long as you don’t show the company logo. However, there are some exceptions to this rule. See our financial guidance for more details.
- Learn more about Managing your finances
Supporting our national work
Your group may be one that focuses on fundraising to support the delivery of national MS Society objectives, or you may plan to contribute excess funds left after covering the costs of providing activities locally.
Before you contribute to national work, you must contact the member of staff who supports you to confirm which projects currently need funding.
Making your contribution
There are two ways to submit your contribution to a national project:
- Send a cheque to the Supporter Care Team and clearly state which project you’d like the funds to go to.
- If your group has online banking (not Online Accounting) you can make a payment by bank transfer.
Your Finance Volunteer should process all cheques and payments.
Funding research
To make sure we use our funds wisely and don’t put people with MS in danger, all research funded by the MS Society needs to go through the formal application system run by our Research Team. If you are approached to fund a research project, you must contact the Research Team for advice.
Earmarked funds
Funds donated to MS National Centre and national offices that are earmarked for a group are processed every month. Your Finance Volunteer receives a report that states the amount that has been earmarked and the person who donated it.
Each donor is sent a thank you note by our Supporter Care Team when their donation arrives.
Restricted funds
Restricted funds are when you’re given donations for a particular purpose or service, so you must use them for this. To keep your funds as flexible as possible, you should take care when fundraising that you don’t generate too much restricted income.
Legacies
If you receive a legacy payment (money left in a will), you must forward it to MS National Centre (or the national office in Edinburgh if you’re in Scotland) for legal and auditing reasons.
Legacy spending plans
Donations left for specific projects or groups need a spending plan as this is also an audit requirement. Your Local Networks Officer will support you to develop a spending plan to enable the funds to be released.
Any questions?
If you have questions about these principles, contact the Finance Team or the member of staff who supports you.
- Get Finance Team contact details
- Go to Fundraising support
Back to Fundraising basics
