Earlier this week, crowdfunding portal Crowdfunder UK offered up some advice to campaign organizers looking to raise funds for political projects.
The platform shared:
“We’ve already raised over £500,000 for hundreds of political crowdfunding projects. There are a few considerations when fundraising for political projects and we’ve worked with the UK Electoral Commission to check guidance and compliancy – to make it as easy as possible for candidates to crowdfund.”
Crowdfunder UK unveiled “must know” facts for these political campaigns:
- All donations must be from a permissible source.
- For Party fundraising, any donations over £500 must be checked that they are from a permissible source.
- For candidate fundraising, any donations over £50 must be checked that they are from a permissible source. This is applicable when it is specifically for a named candidate for the local election.
- A candidate must return a donation over £50 if the source is impermissible or they cannot identify the source.
- Make sure all Crowdfunder rewards ask for a postal address so that you have the full details of the backer and can check against the electoral register. (If you are not sure how to check your backers against the register, speak to your Party HQ)
- Crowdfunding project owners should include a disclaimer on Crowdfunder pages that states all donations over the threshold will need to be checked against the electoral register.
- Project owners will need to request from Crowdfunder that the political funding payment process is turned on for the project by emailing support@crowdfunder.co.uk.
Note: Crowdfunder UK is not affiliated to any individual political party.