Student Fundraising 

From time to time, student groups may wish to hold fundraising activities. 

As a registered charity, South Bank SU itself, the Union must make sure that any fundraising activity undertaken on its behalf meets the legal requirements under Charity law. It is therefore essential that any group wishing to fundraise, first seek approval for this from the Union. 

This process will highlight how to safely manage a student fundraising event and ensure the safe management of any donations that are collected.

Below are the key principles to consider before starting any fundraising event for your student group;

• Student groups are allowed to fundraise. Please make sure that any fundraising activity is agreed and signed off on behalf of your group before commencing. 

• Student groups are allowed to fundraise for themselves. This can include events or other income generating activities but these will need to be signed off.

• You must clearly state exactly what you are fundraising for (i.e fundraising for a particular trip or event) and money raised must only be for that purpose. 

• When planning a fundraising event, you should consider the costs of running the event to make sure that they don’t exceed or significantly reduce the funds you make. For example, if you run a bake sale and you raise £50 but your costs are £12 you could only donate £38 to your selected charity.

• All fundraising activity must be in accordance with charity fundraising law and no group funds can be used or directly donated to charity. Only funds raised after all of your costs have been taken out (i.e ingredients to run a bake sale have to be deducted before you can donate). Any remaining funds after costs can be donated to the charity. 

Are we allowed to fundraise for other charities ?

Yes you can. But because South Bank SU is a registered charity,  you must make sure you follow our guidance to make sure you are following the law. 

You are able to conduct fundraising activities that benefit students, but you cannot just donate society or union funds directly to a charity, as that would break the law in England.

Some key points to follow;

• Make sure you liaise with SBSU and the organisation you are fundraising for to make sure the communication you put out is clear about exactly what you are fundraising for. 

• You cannot donate society funds or membership fees directly to others (charities). However you can use the resources that you have as an affiliated group to deliver the activity. 

• Please make sure you pass any cash from activity to the Union via the approved processes who will make donations to your charity on your behalf. You will receive confirmation of the deposit. 

What activities can we run ?

There are many fundraising events you could put on. This could be from a bake sale to running a marathon to a quiz night. 

You must present your plans for all activity including any fundraising events to the Union as part of your annual/termly activity proposal. The SU will provide you with guidance on how to run the event and make sure it is compliant, and meets any regulatory obligations. 

No activity can be delivered on or off campus without approval from the SU. 

Managing Charity Donations

Cash Payments 

SBSU wants to try and limit the amount of occasions where the use of cash is required. If you wish to run an event or activity, please make use of the website to run all payments electronically. You can make use of our card machines if you wish. These can be hired from the SU office with notice.

If you absolutely need to pay cash to us, then please be aware of the following;

• Please include cash handling on any risk assessment you do for any event or activity and make sure you have appropriate actions in place to limit the risk.

• Please deposit any cash to the SU office by either 4pm on the day of the event or by 10am the next morning. You should nominate someone from your student group to deliver the cash to a staff member in the SU.

• Please complete a paying in form alongside this. This should detail the amount of money, what the activity is for and the name of the society.

We will then pay this into your account for you.

Card Machine Hire

If you want to take money on the door for your events, then please hire our card machines to help with this and to avoid using cash.

If you wish to hire these from us, please send us a request at least 14 days before with the following information on it

• Name of group

• Date Required

• Date of Collection

• Date of Return

• Name of person responsible

• What event

• Where the money will be paid to

The activities team will then process this request. Please note, we have a limited amount of card machines available and they will be distributed on a first come, first served basis. So please send any request in as early as possible. 

When you return this, our finance team will run a report from the machine and allocate all funds received into your club account within 30 days. We will update your accounts within 7 days but please note the physical money may take longer to be transferred. 

Sponsorship

Due to our exclusive sponsorship arrangement with Native individual sponsorship for student groups is not possible. 

Socieites are not allowed to enter any sponsorship arrangement without SBSU's consent as per the affliation agreement.