Fundraising FAQs

Young people aren’t allowed to collected money from strangers. This should be done by adults over the age of 18. It’s good practice to gain consent from parents or guardians before allowing their children to participate in a fundraising activity.

Beaver Scouts – the recommended minimum ratio for both outdoor activities held away from the usual meeting place and sleepovers is 1 adult to 6 Beaver Scouts plus the leader in charge.

Cub Scouts – the recommended minimum ratio for both outdoor activities held away from the usual meeting place and residential experiences is 1 adult to 8 Cub Scouts plus the Leader in charge.

Scouts – the recommended minimum ratio for outdoor activities is 1 adult to 12 Scouts.

Public collections can be a great way for you and your group to raise funds. Anyone collecting money or selling articles on behalf of your Group, District or County, in a place where the public have unrestricted access, must have a licence issued by your Local Authority. It is an offence to collect money without a valid permit. Each Local Authority differs so don’t forget to do your research.

Decide what your fundraiser will be, where it’ll take place and when it’ll happen before contacting your Local Authority so they can guide you to the type of licence or permit you require.

Types of public collections include street collections and door-to-door collections.

For more detailed advice, the Institute of Fundraising has a handy introduction. Find out more here.

Getting sponsorship

All fundraisers require some money to get them started – whether it’s to hire a venue, pay for transportation or offset transaction fees from fundraising pages. Inviting an individual or business to sponsor your event helps you balance these costs and make sure:

1. You won’t make a loss from your fundraiser
2. You get increased exposure for your activity and cause

Larger events may need more than one sponsor. Some events give sponsors an option for different levels of contribution. This is called ‘tiered sponsorship’. For example, a sponsor could be given incentives like logos on sports tops, or mentions on social media and in press releases.

Think about combining this with the ‘entry fee’ option.

Another option is to deduct the costs from the fundraising total. This method is easier than getting sponsorship, but more risky. You’re putting more pressure on your fundraisers or the event itself to reach the target.

The best part of this option is that it makes your fundraiser more inclusive because the participants have their costs covered by their fundraising.

Your third option is to ask participants to pay an entry fee to cover the cost of taking part. This is common for ticketed or challenge events such as races or skydiving.

The entry fee method often works well for large events, but it’s important to keep the ticket price at the right level for your audience – you don’t want to scare anyone away with expensive fees.

It’s common for fundraisers to combine this with the ‘getting sponsorship’ option.

Contact the Fundraising Team today at fundraising@scouts.org.uk. We’ll provide any fundraising support you need, and information on how to send your donations.

The Scout Association has accounts on JustGiving, Virgin Money Giving and GoFundMe.

Note: Please link your event to the Scouts on JustGiving and Virgin Money Giving if you’re supporting UK Scouting – we can’t use our account to support local fundraising, sorry!

Please get in touch with the Group Scout Leader and they’ll provide all the bank details and relevant information for you. If you can’t find their details, please contact the Scout Support Centre for help at support@scouts.org.uk.

You can also fundraise for community groups, non-profit organisations and non-governmental organisations. Speak with them before you begin fundraising. If you’re supporting Scouts (local or UK Scouting) then you might like to support another youth-based charity so your causes align.

There are loads of amazing and important causes in the world so if you can’t decide what to do – ask your team, colleagues, network or local Scout Group what’s important to them.

Virgin Money Giving – You can support up to five charities on each fundraising page and customise what percentage of funds each charity will receive. They’ll be split evenly by default but you can update this:

• Sign in to your account
• Click ‘Edit’ on your dashboard below the page you’d like to update
• Select ‘Edit charities’
• Scroll until you see ‘Modify charity split’ to make your changes and press ‘Done’.

JustGiving – Unfortunately, you can’t split donations between two or more charities with this platform. You can fundraise for one charity per JustGiving page.

GoFundMe – Unfortunately you can't split donations between charities on GoFundMe, instead it's one charity per page.

Not all charities will have account with fundraising platforms. Here’s an example of how to get around this:

Charity A has an account on a fundraising platform. Charity B doesn’t. Tell both charities you’re raising money for them and the percentage they’ll receive (i.e. 50/50). Set up your fundraising page and select Charity A as your chosen charity. Write on your fundraising page that the donations will be split between Charity A and B. At the end of the fundraiser they’ll receive the donations into their bank account. Ask Charity A if you can take half the total and donate it to Charity B. Charity A needs to agree this before you begin fundraising. Tell Charity B the process so they’re in the loop.