How we raise our funds

Our aim is to ensure that engaging with Age UK’s fundraising activities is a positive experience and that donors and the public are always treated with respect, fairness, honesty, and clarity. Age UK is regulated by the Fundraising Regulator and therefore complies with the Code of Fundraising Practice and the Fundraising Promise. Age UK is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising and we collaborate with them to strive for the highest standard of fundraising practices across the sector. We regularly review our fundraising approach and work with others with the aim of promoting best practice across the charity sector.

Contracts are in place with all third-party agencies, and we require strict adherence to applicable laws such as the Fundraising Regulator’s Code of
Fundraising Practice as well as data protection laws. Age UK has used third-party fundraising agencies to deliver face-to-face lottery recruitment and for inbound telephone responses to our adverts and appeals. We did not carry out any outbound telemarketing within this financial year.

Age UK uses a broad variety of fundraising channels to engage our diverse range of supporters to raise funds for the Charity and provide updates on the impact of their donations. We also gratefully receive donations of clothes and goods to our shops. All fundraising activity is subject to approval processes that are supported by our Fundraising Compliance Manager and legal team. Our third-party fundraisers are monitored by call listening, mystery shopping and site observations. The performance of fundraising campaigns and our third-party suppliers is regularly reviewed and is overseen by a quality and compliance assurance process. We are consistently looking to hear feedback from supporters and internal and external stakeholders to deliver a high standard of performance and compliance.

We remain committed to protecting and respecting the privacy of all our supporters. We have continued to work closely with our Partners across the Age UK Network to ensure that all individuals’ data is captured, stored, and used compliantly and with the utmost care. Privacy by design, and the best interests of those we serve, are at the heart of this work. We have focused on strengthening the existing collaboration and processes with our suppliers and agencies in respect of personal data. We have continued to adjust our privacy policy to better reflect the nature, scope, context, and purposes of processing that the organisation undertakes. The full version of our privacy policy can be found here. 

During 2022/23 we received 332 complaints about our fundraising. Of those received, 202 (60 per cent) were made about our lottery and raffle, this represents 0.12 per cent of players. The previous year we received 329 complaints about our fundraising. Complaints about fundraising have remained stable over the last two years and are in line with our marketing activities and supporter base size. We appreciate all feedback and use complaints to shape our fundraising.

Our policy on fundraising with people in vulnerable circumstances is followed by all our fundraisers. Our Fundraising Compliance Manager reviews all fundraising materials and provides training to our fundraisers, and those fundraising on our behalf, regularly. All third-party fundraising campaigns include training to ensure protecting vulnerable people is front of mind in those activities. In addition, we incorporate the Institute of Fundraising’s 'Treating donors fairly' guidance into our fundraising. We regularly review our fundraising marketing channels and propositions and take on feedback from our supporters and the public.