Guidance for Candidates and Agents at Combined Authority Mayoral elections

You must only accept donations over £50 from a permissible source.1  You can find more information about permissible sources and how to check the permissibility of different types of donor, in Who can you accept a donation from?

Money donated via a crowdfunding webpage that is £50 or less is not a donation in electoral law and is not reportable.2

You must not accept a donation with a value of over £50 if you cannot identify who the actual donor is, or if the donation is anonymous.3  An anonymous donation is where no donor information is provided to the person or organisation that has received the donation.

When accepting donations, you must be aware of situations where it appears a donor is attempting to evade the law on permissibility, for example if someone makes multiple donations of £50 or less. It is an offence to attempt to evade the controls on donations.4  If you are concerned this may be happening, please contact us for advice. 

Checking permissibility

Once a donation is received, you have 30 days to carry out permissibility checks and decide whether to accept or return it.5  The date of receipt is the date you receive the funds from the crowdfunding site. This may be different to the date that the donation was made. When you receive the funds will depend on whether the crowdfunding platform lets you make withdrawals during your campaign, or once it has ended.  

You must comply with donation laws for any donation you receive during the regulated period. This includes donations which were made on your crowdfunding page before the regulated period began, but were transferred to you during the regulated period.

You should record information for all of the donations you check, as you will need to report these details in your return.

Checking private donations

A private crowdfunding donation is where the donor’s details are not visible on a public crowdfunding page, but this information is provided to the person who created the page. 

You may accept private crowdfunding donations, provided you have the details required to check the donor’s permissibility.

When you receive a private crowdfunding donation over £50, you should make sure that you have enough information on the donor to carry out permissibility checks. 

For example, if you receive a donation of £100 from an individual who has only provided a name and email address, you should contact the donor to request their home address. You will need this information to check whether the individual is on the UK electoral register, and therefore a permissible donor.

If you cannot check the donor is permissible from the information you have, you must return the donation.

Returning impermissible donations

If you cannot identify who the donor is, or if the donor is impermissible, then you must return the donation within 30 days of receipt.6  The crowdfunding platform you are using may allow you to return the donation directly to the donor. 

If you cannot return the donation to the donor, you should return it to the financial institution used to transfer the donation. This could be the crowdfunding platform you are using, or the bank which has transferred the donation on behalf of the platform.

If it is not possible to return the donation to the donor or the financial institution, please contact us as you must send the donation to the Electoral Commission. We will pay it into the Consolidated Fund which is managed by HM Treasury.7  Please contact us to arrange for the transfer of these funds.