Returning to Fundraising

In March 2020, we ceased all our face-to-face fundraising in residential and retail locations, in line with the requirements of lockdown surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic and to protect both our fundraisers and the public.

The likelihood is that if you are a current Childlife supporter, it’s because you spoke with one of our fundraisers at your home or whilst out shopping.  For a small, lesser-known charity like Childlife, it’s an important way for us to explain the work of the four Childlife charities to the public and to gain new regular supporters.

In line with advice and recommendations from both the Chartered Institute of Fundraising and the Fundraising Regulator which have been prepared in consultation with Public Health England and the Health & Safety Executive, our public fundraising in England and Northern Ireland will resume from 12 April 2021.  Extra precautions are in place to ensure fundraisers work within current Government guidelines at all times in relation to approach, social distancing and good sanitation practices.

There will be extra precautions in place to ensure fundraisers are working within the current Government guidelines at all times in relation to approach, social distancing and good sanitation practices. These include but are not limited to;

Keep up good sanitation practices. Encouraging fundraisers to wash their hands as often as practically possible and use hand sanitiser frequently. Restrict the use of shared equipment and if it must be shared make sure it is properly sanitised.

Limit the number of fundraisers. The number of fundraisers working in one area or site will be limited, for example:

For door-to-door fundraising, no more than four fundraisers should work together at the same time and only one fundraiser at a time should approach a household.

For street fundraising, no more than four fundraisers should work on the same site at the same time in general, but any terms of Site Management Agreements must be adhered to and will take precedence if it sets out a smaller number of fundraisers.

For private site fundraising, the number of fundraisers will be set by the terms of the relevant agreement with the site owner.

We have reviewed how we process donations and collect data. To adhere to social distancing guidance and good sanitation practices, we have reviewed how we take payments and handle donations, these include measures such as removing the requirement for a supporter to touch the tablet.

Use sanitation measures.  Fundraisers will be issued with appropriate clothing, coverings, or hygiene equipment that is in-line with Government advice.

We have revised our fundraising policies to reflect this and trained the fundraisers accordingly.

We feel that the time is now right for our teams to return to face-to-face fundraising and to begin to redress the short-falls in income that we have faced through not being able to interact with the public for over three months. As a consortium, Childlife has not been able to apply for Government funding to counteract this reduction in supporter sign-ups, as some other charities have.  At the same time, the demand for the services of the Childlife member charities has increased, so we now have a lot of work to do!

Keeping our fundraisers and the public safe, whilst ensuring we can continue to support children and families across the UK is of paramount importance to us.  Should you have any concerns that have not been addressed here, please do Contact Us so that we can help.