A political party decides to raise money to spend on regulated campaign activity via a crowdfunding website.
The party enters into an agreement with the crowdfunding website that sets a time limit of 5 January and a target of £20,000.
The party then produces a webpage including:
a proper imprint
advice that permissibility checks will be undertaken for donations made over £500
advice that anonymous donations over £500 cannot be accepted
advice that it is an offence to attempt to evade the donation rules
information that details of donations over the reporting threshold, including the identity of the donor, will be published on the Electoral Commission website (see Which donations and loans do you need to report?)
The party has selected a crowdfunding website that collects enough information from donors to ensure they can complete their recording and reporting obligations.
Upon achieving the target amount, the party receives the funds on 5 January as well as details of the individual donations given from the crowdfunding provider. The donations include:
a donation of £550 received by the crowdfunding webpage on 17 December
a donation of £8,000 received by the crowdfunding webpage on 10 December
three donations of £3,000 from the same source received by the crowdfunding webpage on 10 December, 17 December and 3 January
several other donations from identifiable sources between £500 and £1,000 received by the crowdfunding webpage over the target period
The party should commence permissibility checks on 5 January because this is the date of receipt.
The donation of £550 is from an anonymous source. The party returns the donation to the financial institution it was received from originally before the end of the 30 day period for checking permissibility.
The party accepts the donation of £8,000 after a permissibility check is undertaken. The donor is made aware from the information provided on the webpage that their name will be published on the Electoral Commission website.
The party aggregates and accepts the three donations of £3,000 from the same source after they undertake the permissibility checks. The donor is made aware from the information provided on the webpage that their name will be published on the Electoral Commission website.
The party accepts the donations of between £500 and £1,000 after they undertake the permissibility checks. The party records these donations but is not required to report these as they do not meet the reporting threshold.
The party reports the single donation of £8,000, and the three aggregated donations of £3,000 from the same source, as these meet the over £7,500 reporting threshold. Details of these donations are later published on the Electoral Commission website.