Business plan 2026/27

This is the fifth and final business plan that falls within the scope of our Strategic plan 2022 – 2027. The strategy sets out our view of how we will deliver the effective regulation of charitable fundraising over the next five years. 

Our regulation is risk, evidence and outcomes based. There are cross-cutting themes running through our objectives, which together will guide us to regulate charitable fundraising effectively. These are:

• Innovative: We will keep abreast of digital and wider social developments and how these may shape fundraising into the future. Our regulation will evolve accordingly.
• Proactive: We will continue to develop our proactive approach, strengthening the work we do to ensure compliance with the code, in addition to complaints handling. We will prioritise proactive regulation where we identify issues that may cause harm to the public or damage to the reputation of charitable fundraising even if those issues have not attracted complaints.
• Intelligent: We will use our data more intelligently to support the development of the code and our compliance work. We will collect and share fundraising data from others to inform our regulatory priorities and to share knowledge and learning. 
• Collaborative: We will bring in views from across the fundraising sector and the wider public so that we remain a thought leader in fundraising. We will create new information sharing opportunities to ensure that fundraisers and the public have a greater voice in developing our policies. As part of this, we will strengthen relationships with other regulators and government.

All our work is delivered in line with the following strategic objectives:

1. To deliver intelligent fundraising regulation that protects the public.
2. To inform members of the public about principled fundraising.
3. To support fundraising organisations to thrive.
4. To be a highly effective organisation.

This year’s budget allows us to deliver our core business as usual activity. This includes:

• Producing guidance and support to help fundraisers comply with the Code of Fundraising Practice
• Continuing to offer advice on high standards of fundraising through our Code Advice Service, available either online or over the phone.
• Managing complaints casework at about 85 complaints per month (1,020 per year). Including investigating matters of regulatory concern arising from complaints or other intelligence.
• Maintaining Fundraising Levy (the levy) and registration activity at present levels, with the additional capacity to process up to 70 new applications per month for registration and increasing numbers of annual renewals.
• Operating the Fundraising Preference Service (FPS) at present or at increased levels of activity.

The priorities for this year are as follows:

To deliver intelligent fundraising regulation that protects the public.

We will continue to deliver regulatory projects generated through our intelligence gathering and analysis. We will work to ensure that fundraising platforms and free prize draw operators to ensure transparency for the public.

We remain committed to maintaining and growing our collaborative relationships with existing and new regulatory partners to develop and share intelligence and work together on projects.

Key deliverables

• Publish the Casework Insights and Trends report on the learning from our complaints and investigations, including learning from compliance enquiries.
• Continue to improve collective regulation through close working with other statutory and non-statutory regulators where remits intersect.
• Implement the review of our intelligence gathering process to “be smarter” in our ability to identify and analyse intelligence and find trends for further scrutiny and potential proactive projects.
• Continue to develop our role as a leader and convener for bringing together regulators, enforcement authorities, private companies, and sector bodies to further a collaborative and collective approach to regulation and lobby where appropriate for legislative and regulatory change.
• Implement changes to the registration requirements for free prize draw operators to ensure that only those organisations that make a meaningful contribution to charitable causes can display the FR badge.
• Expand our proactive work with cash collection private sites to include shopping centres and leisure facilities.
• Deliver further proactive projects to support the sector and improve compliance with the code.
• Work with online fundraising platforms to ensure the public’s experience of donating to charitable causes is fair and transparent. 
• Assess charities’ compliance with the Charities Act 2016 reporting requirements and provide guidance aimed at supporting adherence to those legal requirements. 

To inform members of the public about principled fundraising

It is our role to make sure that whatever fundraising is taking place, standards remain high, and the public continues to be protected.

We will continue to run an open and accessible complaints service that helps complainants and charitable institutions in getting complaints resolved.  We will also continue to provide a way for the public to manage their communications with charities through the FPS.

Having successfully delivered public information campaigns on NextDoor in the last year, we will trial content on other social media platforms.

Key deliverables

• Continue to deliver public facing marketing campaigns to help the public and donors understand fundraising and make informed decisions about which causes to support.
• Experiment with new digital marketing channels and campaigns to encourage safer giving from donors and potential donors.
• Increase use of our digital badge to give greater confidence to the public and help deter fraudulent fundraising.
• Continue to work with other regulators and relevant bodies to provide joint public messages to further emphasise and increase the reach of our safer giving campaigns.
• Review and make changes to our public Directory of registered organisations to make sure it supports the public when deciding where to donate.
• Work with the Charity Commission in England and Wales to promote our joint advice for members of the public on setting up a fundraising campaign. 

To support fundraising organisations to thrive

November 2026 will see the one-year anniversary of the launch of the new Code. We will take the opportunity of this milestone to review how the Code has been implemented and received by the fundraising sector.

We will continue to publish other support resources and guidance, and work with our partners to make sure our messages are heard.

Following a detailed review and change of direction we will be publishing our first report on complaints handling in charities since November 2023.

Key deliverables

• One year after the publication of the new Code we will review how it is being used and any issues that have arisen.
• Publish guidance and support resources aimed at helping fundraising organisations understand and apply the code.
• Publish timely summaries of completed investigations highlighting areas of code breach and recommendations for improvement.
• Continue to strengthen engagement with the fundraising sector in Wales and Northern Ireland.
• Continue to work closely with the Scottish Fundraising Adjudications Panel and the Office of the Scottish charity Regulator
• Work with an external research agency to deliver our Sectoral Complaints Project examining fundraising complaints received by charities 

To be a highly effective organisation

As this is the last year of our current Strategic Plan, we will be working to develop a new one to cover the next five-year period. We will ensure that we share our intentions with key stakeholders so that they have the chance to influence what we set out to deliver.

Following the successful introduction of the changes to the levy in 2024-25 and 2025-26, this year we hope levy and registration collection will return to business as usual. We will continue to carefully monitor our expenditure to make sure we are offering value for money and make efficiencies where possible. We are keenly aware of how we are funded and the pressures on the charity sector; and we take our budgeting responsibilities seriously.

Key deliverables

• Draft and widely engage stakeholders in the development of our next Strategic Plan to cover the period from September 2027 – 2032. 
• Developing Fundraising Levy (the levy), seeking to ensure that all charities that should be included are, we anticipate this will lead to approximately 200 new charities to the Levy. 
• We will also focus on adding more smaller registered charities, with a focus on affiliated organisations, whilst increasing our current retention rates.  
• Continue to assess how we can use AI tools to improve efficiencies across the business and enhance our intelligence gathering and analysis.
• Review our internal processes and terms and conditions to ensure consistency and regulatory effectiveness in our remit and registration criteria.
• Continue to invest in development opportunities for staff team to ensure they have skills required to successfully deliver in their roles.

Charity and non-charity registration scheme

The Fundraising Regulator’s scheme of voluntary fundraising regulation in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland is mainly funded by the Fundraising Levy (the levy). The levy amounts to about 85% of the regulator’s income and is paid by the charities that conduct the most fundraising activity. Around 2,400 charities are currently within the scope of the levy, which is based on a sliding scale of payments for all charities spending £100,000 or more on fundraising per year.

The rest of our income comes primarily from a registration scheme for smaller fundraising charities and non-charities (such as commercial businesses, Community Interest Companies (CICs) and public interest bodies) that engage in charitable fundraising. Smaller charities spending less than £100,000 a year on fundraising pay £60 a year to register with us. Non-charities pay registration fees on a sliding scale according to their turnover.

All organisations that commit publicly to meeting the Code of Fundraising Practice, and pay the levy or the relevant registration fee (currently just over 7,500 bodies), can display the Fundraising Badge on their fundraising materials, and are encouraged to do so. 

Budget for 2026-27

Our budget for 2026-27 is £3.98 million which represents a decrease on last year’s forecast expenditure of £4.04 million. The budget change comes saving in internal efficiency and development projects.

We anticipate that our total income will be around £4.48 million with £3.82 million forecast to come from the levy and the remainder from small charity and non-charity registrations.

Staffing

Our commitment to offering value for money means we look to regulate in a way that is as efficient and effective as possible. This includes making sure our workforce remains skilled and supported to do their work.

Our staffing costs constitute a substantial part of our expenditure in 2026/27 at about 70%. Staff work in five teams – proactive regulation and projects; casework; communications and corporate services; finance and procurement; and policy. 

Budget summary

Budget summary by cost centre