Checklist for agreement with a professional fund-raiser

The following may be of help to trustees when considering the content of an agreement with a professional fund-raiser:

• Is the fund-raiser reputable? Can other charities provide a reference? Is he or she a member of the Institute of Fundraising?
• Is there a period of notice specified to enable the trustees to terminate the agreement if they are unhappy with the fund-raiser? What is the period of notice? Trustees should avoid committing themselves to long periods of notice. Between one and three months should be ample in most cases.
• Is the method the fund-raiser intends to use likely to be distasteful to the public or to the charity’s supporters? Often such methods are quite legal and we cannot enforce any suggestion to stop them.
• Are the charitable institution’s trademarks, and other intellectual property rights in logos, artwork etc, safeguarded by the agreement?
• Are any collecting boxes obtained by a fund-raiser the charity’s property? What control do the trustees have over siting, emptying and what becomes of the boxes after the agreement ends?
• Does any confidential information about the charitable institution which the fund-raiser has acquired need to be safeguarded (i.e. not divulged without the institution’s permission)?
• Should a fixed charge be set in the agreement for the fund-raiser’s remuneration or should it be calculated partly or wholly as a percentage of funds raised? (If the latter basis is used, trustees should bear in mind that the more money raised, the more the fund-raiser will be entitled to - if this sum appears large, adverse publicity may result).