Fundraising Q&A

Thank you for your support

Greetings,

As the Salvation Army officer with overall responsibility for fundraising, my main concern is making sure that we make it easy and rewarding for you to support the work of The Salvation Army across the UK and Ireland. We try to ensure the starting point in our fundraising is you, and being respectful of the ways in which you want to support us.

We do get enquiries from people about our fundraising, and I thought it would be helpful to give you some of the most frequently asked questions, and our own position, to help you understand how we go about our fundraising, and to see that appreciation, consideration and respect are the hallmarks of how we fundraise and how much we value our band of wonderful supporters and donors.

Thank you for all you do for us.

Sincerely,

Lieut-Colonel Nick Coke

Your questions answered

Fundraising at The Salvation Army is an important activity, whether it is through one of our charity shops, a collection at one of our churches, a concert or an appeal in the post. We always try to fundraise to the highest standards and in the most respectful and considerate ways.

We need to raise funds to keep us going. Therefore we need to ask. What we always try to do is to ask properly. Our supporters appreciate this. Many have been giving to us for many years, when it suits them. We never take that support for granted and we would never want to damage the trust people place in us.

We write to our supporters several times a year and we send regular email updates on our work to people who have chosen to hear from us in this way, but when someone wants to hear from us less often, or not at all we respect that. Some of our supporters only want us to be in touch at Christmas-time, which is why that is such an important appeal period for us.

We also encourage people to fundraise for us in other ways too, such as taking part in sporting or activity events such as marathons or fundraise at home, work or in their own churches.

When you donate to The Salvation Army through our website, monies raised will be used to help vulnerable people and support our work across the United Kingdom.

These are unrestricted donations and will be used to support the varied work described on our website.

For further information on why your support is important to us, please visit our webpage: Our fundraising explained.

Where we fundraise online for a specific appeal or project, we will let you know where the money will be spent before you donate.

Our postal appeals and campaigns will highlight many areas of our work and the monies raised will be used to help vulnerable people and support our work across the United Kingdom.

However, if we are raising funds that are restricted for a specific purpose, for example, a particular project or an emergency, this will be made clear on the fundraising materials.

Be alert for bogus email, social media and text messages and fake website links from scammers asking for support on behalf of The Salvation Army. Do not respond to these requests and ignore and delete them.

If in doubt, and you are concerned about an email or suspicious Facebook or Instagram advert you have received, please contact the our donor services team tel: 020 7367 4800; email fr@salvationarmy.org.uk or by post, The Salvation Army, 1 Champion Park, London, SE5 8FJ.

If you think you have been a victim of identity theft, report this to your bank and Action Fraud, the UK’s national fraud and internet crime reporting centre. You can call Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or go to the website. If you are concerned about a vulnerable person who has been targeted by scammers you may want to call your local police on 101.

Please ensure that you only make donations on the official Salvation Army website or our official JustGiving page

We value feedback from our supporters. If you have a complaint or a query or would like to make changes to the way you support us, how often you hear from us or you want to stop hearing from us, please contact our Supporter Care Team on 020 7367 4800 or by email fr@salvationarmy.org.uk or write to us at Supporter Care Team, The Salvation Army, 1 Champion Park, London, SE5 8FJ. If you would like to see a copy of our Fundraising Complaints Procedure please click here.

The Salvation Army in the UK accounts for the delivery of its charitable work through two trusts, The Salvation Army Trust (Charity Commission no. 214779) and The Salvation Army Social Work Trust (Charity Commission no. 215174).

One trust principally funds our local community work, the other principally funds our centrally managed residential social work including homelessness, older people’s and addictions services. Funds are raised through The Salvation Army Trust and allocated across both trusts as needed, for the most effective delivery of services to people in need and for accurate accountability.