Political party donations and loans in Northern Ireland

You should make sure that your crowdfunding page provides information about who the money is being donated to and what the money is being donated for. For example, whether the fund is going towards to your political party or to meet your candidate’s election campaign expenditure. This is important because there are different recording and reporting thresholds for party and candidate donations.

You should make sure that the page contains information to explain that permissibility checks will be undertaken in compliance with the law. You should be clear about the reasons why you are collecting any information.

Your crowdfunding page should also explain that donation and donor information for all donations over £500, including private donations, may be reported to the Electoral Commission. You can find a definition of the term ‘private crowdfunding donation’, in Choosing a crowdfunding platform.

We publish details of the amounts and the donors on our website to provide transparency for voters. We do not publish the addresses of individuals who donate.1

We recommend you are clear and explain that if a donor cannot be identified, or if they are an impermissible donor, then the donation will have to be returned. If you do not receive enough information about a donor, you may need to contact them to ask for further details.

We recommend that you include an imprint on your crowdfunding page. You can find more information on digital imprints, in Imprints.

If you are planning to create a crowdfunding campaign and you are unsure about which requirements apply, or how to plan your campaign to meet requirements, you can reach out to us for advice.