A political party decides to raise money on a crowdfunding website to spend on general campaigning.
The party creates a crowdfunding page with a deadline of 1 September.
The party chooses a crowdfunding platform that collects enough information from donors to ensure they can complete their recording and reporting obligations, and allows donations to be returned if they are impermissible.
The party includes the following information on its crowdfunding page:
who the money is going to and what it will be used for – “We are raising money for the Grey Party to spend on our campaigns and other activities in the UK”
advice that permissibility checks will be undertaken for donations made over £500
advice that if a donor cannot be verified, or is an impermissible source, their donation will be returned
advice that details of donations may be reported to the Electoral Commission as part of the party’s reporting requirements, and in turn be made available to the public on the Commission’s website
a valid imprint
By the deadline, the party has raised £8,000. The funds, minus the platform’s fees, are transferred to the party five working days later. The donations include:
Donation A: £3,000 made on 10 August, donor name and home address received
Donation B: £1900 made on 19 August , donor name and home address received
Donation C: private donation of £650 made on 27th August, donor name and email address received
Several contributions under £500 made over the crowdfunding period
The central party receives the funds on 8 September and downloads information on the donors from the crowdfunding platform. Their 30-day window for permissibility checks starts on 8 September, because this is the date of receipt.
Donation A is accepted after permissibility checks are carried out.
The party carries out permissibility checks on Donation B and finds out that the donation was from an impermissible source. The party returns the donation to the donor through the crowdfunding platform.
The party receives only the name and email address of the donor for Donation C. This information is not enough to check permissibility. The party contacts the donor to request their home address, but doesn’t receive a response. The party rejects the donation and returns it to the donor.
The party does not need to check the contributions under £500.
When the party completes its donations and loans report for Quarter 3, it records the donations over £500 which they accepted, and those which were returned. Contributions of £500 or under are not recorded. The party records the fees charged by the platform under the advertising category in their spending return.