Charity collections

If you collect money or other goods, including making direct debit appeals for charity from house to house or in our borough's town and village centres you will usually need a house to house collections licence or a street collections permit.

Our Charity Collections Policy was adopted by the Council in December 2017.  This included the re-adoption of Model Street Collections Regulations.  The policy was reviewed  in June 2019, June 2020 and November 2020 and approved by the Council's Regulatory Committee. 

  Charity Collections Policy 2020 - 2023 

Guidance following the lifting of Covid related restrictions

Please follow guidance issued by Central Government and the Charity Commission and the Institute of Fundraising and/or Public Health England with regard to social distancing and the lifting of restrictions.

All fundraising activity should be properly risk assessed but the Council cannot sanction any risk assessments as being covid compliant. Any non-compliance with social distancing guidelines is enforceable by the HSE.

Each application will be treated on its merits.

A Pedlar's licence can be issued by the Police Chief Commissioner in the area that a pedlar lives but it does not cover charitable collections.  A Pedlar has to fall within the definition of the Pedlar's Act 1871.

The following activities all

• collecting cash donations
• selling goods such as pin badges
• an appeal for direct debit donations (face to face fundraising)
• an appeal for donations of unwanted goods such as clothes and bric-a-brac need to be licensed unless the charity has a National Exemption Order (House to House exemption only):

An appeal for direct debit donations is not normally allowed in Runnymede's towns and village centres, but a small number of house to house licences may be granted.  Each application will be treated on its merits.

Leaflets

You do not normally need a licence to hand out leaflets promoting a business, providing you are not soliciting people's financial details or pledges for some kind of financial transaction in connection with a charitable appeal.  However, you must not obstruct the highway, cause any form of nuisance that would give rise to a complaint, nor put yourself or anyone else at risk by your behaviour or actions. 

Fees

There is no charge for carrying out charity collections.