Charity Fundraising at Craft Fairs: Proceeds, Collection Tins, and Permission

Start with the charity, not the paperwork

Whatever you are planning, the easiest first step is also the correct one: contact the charity. Most charities of any size have a community fundraising team, and supporters running stalls and fairs are their bread and butter. They will confirm the wording they want on your signs, often supply materials (branded tins, posters, their registered charity number in the right format), and set up a simple "in aid of" agreement where one is needed. This is usually a warm and productive conversation, not a bureaucratic hurdle, and it quietly resolves most of the legal points in the rest of this guide.

It also settles the permission question. Using a charity's name or logo in your promotion requires the charity's consent, whoever you are and however good your intentions. That is what the "in aid of" conversation is for.

One piece of sector vocabulary is worth knowing because the charity will use it. Fundraising "in aid of" a charity means you organise independently and donate what you raise; fundraising "on behalf of" a charity means you act as its authorised agent. Almost all craft fair fundraising is "in aid of", and charities publish materials setting out what "in aid of" fundraisers may do with their name.

What your sign says: be exact, not vague

The phrases everyone reaches for are the ones regulators specifically warn against. "All proceeds to charity", "proceeds go to X", and "10% of profits" (without saying what counts as profit) are all considered misleading framing, because "proceeds" and "profits" are different things and the person handing over money cannot tell which you mean, or how much of it the charity will actually see.

The compliant version is concrete:

• "£1 from every candle sold today goes to [charity name], registered charity no. [number]."
• "All of today's stall fees go to [charity name]."
• "Everything this stall takes today will be donated to [charity name]."

If you genuinely are donating everything, say so in those words. If you are donating a share, name the share and what it is a share of. This is not just regulatory box-ticking: overstating what a charity receives, or claiming money goes to charity when it does not, is misleading under consumer protection law and potentially fraud. The practical test is simple: write nothing on the sign you would not be happy defending, with your sales figures open, in a public Facebook thread.

Trading as a business? You may be a commercial participator

This is the rule almost nobody at craft fair level has heard of. Under the Charities Act 1992, a business that promotes the sale of its goods or services on the basis that some of the money goes to a charity is a "commercial participator". The classic example is a card shop donating 10p per card sold, but the definition reaches a candle maker trading as a business whose sign says a share of today's takings goes to the air ambulance.

A commercial participator must have two things in place:

• 1. A written agreement with the charity, containing legally prescribed terms: who the parties are, how long the arrangement lasts, and how the charity's share is calculated.
• 2. A solicitation statement made when promoting the goods (on the sign, in practice), naming the charity and stating as accurately as possible the amount or proportion of the price the charity receives.

The wording rules from the previous section therefore do double duty: "£1 from every candle sold goes to [charity]" is both honest signage and a compliant solicitation statement.

The boundary is whether you are carrying on a business for gain. A genuine hobbyist donating her takings is likely outside the commercial participator regime entirely, though the honesty and permission duties above still apply in full. Where that hobby-to-business line sits is its own question, and our guide on when a hobby becomes a business walks through it.

If this catches you, do not panic and do not quietly take the sign down. Charities handle these agreements routinely, and their fundraising team will usually send you a short standard form. It is one more thing the "contact the charity first" step resolves.

Organisers running an event in aid of a charity

The same principles scale up from a stall to a whole fair. If you are organising an event "in aid of" a charity, your promotion should state clearly what share of what goes to the charity: the stall fees? Entry donations? The raffle takings? A percentage of everything? Pick the true answer and print that.

Who you are changes which rules bite. If the organiser is a business (a professional events company running a charity fair, for example), the commercial participator rules apply to the organiser directly, written agreement and all. If the organiser is a volunteer or community group, the operative duties are the universal ones: honesty about the money, and the charity's permission for the name.

And a common confusion worth defusing for your stallholders: simply paying a stall fee at an event whose profits go to charity does not make a stallholder a commercial participator. They need no agreement and no statement. The rules only engage when a stallholder personally advertises that their own sales benefit the charity.

If your event includes a raffle or tombola, and nearly every charity fair does, the rules are a separate legal regime with their own trap around advance ticket sales; our guide to raffles, games, and lotteries covers them. Food stalls at occasional charity events also have a specific registration exemption, covered in our food business registration guide.

Collection tins, buckets, and permits

The law on collections is old, inconsistent, and administered council by council, so this section gives you the simple version plus an honest instruction for the edge cases: when in doubt, check your council's licensing pages.

The simple version:

• A collecting tin or bucket inside the venue, at a fair on private premises, with the organiser's and landowner's permission: no council permit needed. This covers the overwhelming majority of craft fair situations. A static tin on a stall or counter needs no licence at all.
• Collecting in a street or public place, including on the pavement outside the venue door and, in some council areas, even a private car park or frontage: a street collection permit from the local council is required. Permits are free, but typically need applying for a month or more ahead, and councils limit how many collections happen in an area.
• Going from premises to premises (pub to pub, door to door, business to business): a house-to-house collection licence is required.

Council interpretation genuinely varies at the boundaries, particularly car parks, forecourts, and outdoor areas of private land. If your fair spills outdoors, a quick call to the council licensing team settles it.

A few practical points that keep everyone comfortable:

• Collectors must be 16 or over.
• Use sealed containers labelled with the charity's name. If you are collecting for a registered charity, it will usually supply sealed, branded tins and expect them back; another reason the contact-the-charity step earns its place.
• Count the money with two people present, bank it promptly, and agree the amount with the charity in writing (an email is fine).

Money matters: three short facts

These come up every time, so here are the plain answers. Anything past them is a question for HMRC guidance, an accountant, or the charity itself.

• Donating your takings does not make them tax-free. For a sole trader, sales income remains business income even if every penny goes to charity; the donation is then a personal gift, which may qualify for Gift Aid as an individual donation.
• Gift Aid applies to donations, not purchases. A customer buying a candle where £1 goes to charity has made a purchase; that £1 cannot be Gift Aided. Money in a collection tin is a donation but cannot be Gift Aided without a declaration. Raffle tickets are never eligible.
• Put the charity's registered number on your materials. Registered charities above a modest income threshold are required to state their registered status on fundraising materials, so posters and signs for an "in aid of" event should carry the charity's registered number; the charity will confirm the exact wording it wants.