Corporate fundraising

It's easy to think that because you are working with businesses in corporate fundraising that you don’t need to worry about safeguarding. This is not true. You should still to carry out safeguarding risk assessments for all your activities and you must work hard to make sure your code of conduct is upheld.

Here are two common activities in corporate fundraising that need a safeguarding approach:

Corporate fundraising events

You must make sure that these events are run in a way that help keep people safe. Even if it is the corporate organisation taking the lead, any problems that arise will affect your charity. In the planning stages you should ask questions, and make sure you are satisfied that your partners are taking safeguarding seriously.

• Is the event appropriate and are you confident that everyone in attendance will be treated with respect?
• If the event is contracted to an events company, have you checked its policies and protocols?
• Is the event following the code of fundraising practice or could donors feel pressured to donate?

In 2018 gala fundraising hit the headlines in all the wrong ways. Read the Charity Commission’s report into the President’s Club event and lessons learned.

Visits and employee volunteering opportunities

A longer-term relationship with a corporate partner often involves employee visits or volunteering. When you develop this type of activity you must do this working closely with your colleagues across the charity. You’ll need to be sure that it does not disturb your day-to-day work, and that it is not a problem for the people you work with, especially service users and beneficiaries.

When external people visit your premises make sure:

• you have enough staff or volunteers on hand to manage the visit
• you’ve sent the company your safeguarding policy and code of conduct in advance so everyone visiting knows what’s expected of them
• you keep a register of visitors
• everyone visiting has signed in and signed out.