Guidance for Candidates and Agents at Combined Authority Mayoral elections

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Common examples of sponsorship

Fundraising events and dinners

Payments provided towards meeting the costs of a dinner or reception organised by or on your behalf will be sponsorship.

For example, an individual pays £5,000 to sponsor a dinner organised by candidate. This includes a table at the dinner for the individual and its guests.

The election agent must check the individual is a permissible donor before accepting the donation and must report details of the donation in the candidate’s spending and donations return after the election.

If you sell tickets to a dinner or reception you have organised, or is organised on your behalf, this will not be sponsorship because admission charges to events do not count as sponsorship.

However, it is important you work out the market value of the service provided at the event, as the difference between the value and the amount you are paid will be a non-sponsorship donation if this is more than £50.1

For example, a candidate sells tickets to their dinner. The costs of the event are as follows:

  • market value of the service provided per person: £30
  • ticket price: £120

In this example, the difference between the market value of the service provided per person and the amount charged is £90. As the difference is more than £50, anyone purchasing a ticket to the dinner will be donating £90 to the candidate.

At the same event, the candidate also sells tables for 10 guests.

  • market value of each table: £300
  • table price: £1,000

In this example, the difference between the value of each table and the amount charged is £700. Anyone purchasing a table at the conference dinner will therefore be donating £700 to the candidate.

As the candidate can only accept donations of more than £50 from a permissible source, only those that are permissible will be able to purchase an individual ticket or table.

Publications

If you receive payments towards the costs of preparing, producing, or distributing a publication, this will be sponsorship.

For example, a company pays £5,000 to sponsor a publication by a candidate to promote policies within the party. This includes the company’s name and logo being displayed in the publication and being promoted as a joint research partner.

The candidate must check the company is a permissible donor before accepting the donation and must report details of the donation in the candidate’s spending and donations return after the election.

If you sell adverts in your publications at the commercial rate, this will not be sponsorship because payments made to place adverts in your publications at the commercial rate do not count as sponsorship.

To work out whether payments made to place adverts in a publication are a donation, you must work out the commercial rate to charge for these adverts. The commercial rate will be the average rates for similar adverts offered by commercial providers.

If someone pays more than the commercial rate for an advert in a publication, the full amount of the payment will be sponsorship. This is because the exemption would no longer apply.

Diweddarwyd ddiwethaf: 9 Tachwedd 2026