What do you need to do when you receive a donation?
When a non-party campaigner receives a donation of more than £500, they must promptly check whether the donation is from a permissible source.
Where a donation is received via an agent, the non-party campaigner must be able to identify the identity of the true donor.1
The agent must provide details of the true donor.2
Donations from impermissible or unidentified donors must be returned within 30 days of receipt of the donation.3
Non-party campaigners must keep records of the donations that are received, as well as donations that have been returned. These details must be included when the donation is reported to the Commission.
Checks on donations
Checks on donations
Donations can only be accepted from certain sources, which are mainly UK-based . Please see Who can you accept donations from? for details on which sources are permissible.
Before you accept any donation of more than £500, you must take all reasonable steps to:
make sure you know the true identity of the donor
check that the donation is from a permissible source4
How long do you have to check permissibility?
When you receive a donation, you have 30 days to conduct permissibility checks and return it if it is impermissible.
Even if you have made a permissibility check in connection with an earlier donation from the same source, you should make a fresh check for each subsequent donation. This is because the status of donors can change, particularly if a previous donation was some time ago.
You should keep a record of all your permissibility checks to show that you have followed the law.