This is a rebate scheme along the lines of easy fundraising, people buying from Amazon can stipulate a charity who will then receive a kick back on their purchases.
However registering for this requires charities to have the full six digit charity number and they wont except our excepted status numbers on the on line registration.
Does anyone have a solution for this that does not involve registering as a stand alone charity with all that implies with regard to audit etc, we dont want to be using the Corps six digit number as I doubt a squadron would ever see any funds from it.
Just Giving is a similar situation where they also wont accept excepted charity details. I find this odd as excepted status does cover a whole raft a child organisations such as scouts, guides etc as well as various churches.
Thanks for your thoughts,
A
There is no legitimate way around this save getting your own number via registering.
Excepted Status numbers will not be accepted because they are not charitable numbers, they are the numbers given to the legal order that gave permission for the exception, so as a result 100 squadrons could have the same ‘batch’ number.
Additionally Excepted Status was abandoned in 2009 and it is highly likely that squadrons will be required to register in the future anyway - all squadrons outside of England and Wales (e.g. Scotland, Northern Ireland and overseas territories already have to register so it is expected that England and Wales will have to come into line.
I wouldn’t get too fussed about registering. You can use a model constitution (downloadable from the Charity Commission website) and apply. Other squadrons have done this and it will give you the genuine number you require for such fundraising. Auditing even the larger squadron charities is not onerous and the process of annual returns is pretty straightforward too. ATC-HQ have also confirmed that this removes the need to complete Form 60, so it really is a win win.
You will also be doing your squadron a service in properly protecting the charitable trust that exists for the cadets and avoiding much of the contradictions in ACP-11 and any risk of your bank account being frozen through non-charitable access (i.e. Wing Chair). You will also enhance your standing in the eyes of other grant-givers (certainly public bodies) who will increasingly not recognise Exception Order numbers as they are required to demonstrate due diligence in their own organisations.
Out of curiosity, have you got the reference for this?
Is the amount raised any different from easyfundraising?
Yes… Amazon no longer supports easy fundraising
I will endeavour to get a copy and PM you.
In the meantime, remember that ATC-HQ are not charitable nor any form of charity regulator and F-60 is nothing more than an internal document (though some who should know better have claimed that charitable status depends on it!).
It shouldn’t be a surprise really - why should HQ persist with F-60 over a squadron whose Civcom is registered and under greater duty to the Charity Commission who are the only regulator for whom they do an official return of greater status? It will also save the fiasco of Wing giving your CivCom £75 back which was theirs in the first place and never charitably given for the purpose of an Admin Grant (some might say bribery).
Anyway … I will see what I can send you.
Really? I shopped at Amazon through easy fundraising today with no issues. (Unlike Next who have been publicly shamed for dropping out.)