Planning your fundraiser

The first rule of fundraising is to have a great time, but there are a few other things you need to bear in mind too. Here’s our tips on how to keep everything above board.

Health and Safety

Keep your personal safety in mind while you’re planning and on the day. We can’t take any responsibility for your activity, so we recommend doing your own risk assessment to prevent risks and legal issues. This is important even if your event will take place somewhere you know really well like your workplace or local café.
Types of events that need a risk assessment include solo challenges (like a solo walk, run, cycle, swim or drive), anything involving food or drink, and any in-person event involving the public.
If you’re selling food at your event, you might need to have food hygiene certification or something similar, but we would recommend that you contact your local council for advice on this.

Children and Young People

If you’re under 16, we’ll need a parent’s or guardian’s consent for you to fundraise for us. Please get in touch with us at fundraising@nottinghamshiremind.org.uk for a copy of our consent form.
If you’ll have children at your event, make sure they have permission to take part, and an adult to look after them. You should carry out background checks if adults are looking after children unsupervised.

Competitions, prize draws, raffles and lotteries

They’re brilliant for raising money, but there are lots of important rules about how lotteries, draws and raffles can be run. You might need to apply for a license to hold a raffle or lottery at your event. Find out more from the Gambling Commission.
Remember that you can’t sell tickets to anyone under 16 years of age.
Online raffles, lotteries and prize draws are also subject to rules and regulations. Your local council can give you more guidance.

Licences and insurance

If you’re holding an in-person event involving the public, you’ll need Public Liability Insurance. We can’t accept any responsibility for your event, and it won’t be covered by Nottinghamshire Mind’s insurance.
Make sure you’ve got any licences from your local authority you need in place. Examples of this are a gambling licence for certain raffles or prize draws, a public entertainment licence to put on entertainment (like music, dancing or a film screening) at a venue that doesn’t already have a licence, and you’ll also need a licence to sell alcohol. You’ll also need a licence to collect money in a public place.

Using Nottinghamshire Mind's brand

Make sure you only use Nottinghamshire Mind-branded fundraising materials for fundraising that you have already registered with us. Please don’t use these materials for any other activities without first letting us know.
As you’ll be fundraising as an independent supporter, you’ll need to refer to your activity as ‘in aid of Nottinghamshire Mind’ (rather than ‘on Nottinghamshire Mind’s behalf’).
Double check you’re using our Nottinghamshire Mind brand, and not the (national) Mind logo – local Minds are a separate charity, doing our own fundraising, and have a different logo and charity number. Find out more about the difference between Mind and local Minds at www.mind.org.uk/local-minds
Contact us at fundraising@nottinghamshiremind.org.uk for a copy of our ‘in aid of’ logo and advice on how you can use this for your promotions.

Collecting money

If you are planning to collect money (ie cash) at your event, please give us a call first. We’ll take you through the basics and send you collections tins and seals if you need these. The key things to remember are:

You have to be 16 to collect money.
If you’re planning a collection on private property – like a shop or train station – you need to get permission from the owner.
You need a licence from your local authority or police to collect donations on the street or any other public property.

Fundraise through an organised event or challenge

You can fundraise for us in any way you want to! It doesn’t have to be an event we have organised, or an event you put together yourself (or with friends!). If you’ve got a place in an event like a Marathon or a Challenge Event you can still choose* to raise funds for Nottinghamshire Mind.

You just need to register your event with us as your own challenge and set up your fundraising page to donate the funds to us. Check out the information on our ‘How to Fundraise’ page for details.

* Please check the terms and conditions for your chosen challenge with the event organiser to make sure this is within the rules of the event.

If you would like to talk to us about your fundraiser, or if you have questions not covered in this guidance, please email fundraising@nottinghamshiremind.org.uk and we’ll be in touch.

Useful links for further guidance

Health and Safety Executive: hse.gov.uk/event-safety

The Fundraising Regulator: fundraisingregulator.org.uk/fundraising-methods-events

The Gambling Commission: gamblingcommission.gov.uk