Consumer Advice

Charity Check

Precautions to safeguard charity collections on off-street premises such as stores.

The following precautions have been recommended to those receiving applications for the holding of a charity collection:

To check that the charity or cause to benefit is reputable, not merely registered; and
To check that the collector or organiser genuinely acts for that charity or cause

On 1 November 2000 the London Assembly passed unanimously a Motion which welcomed the support shown for the Charity Check system, and recommended that, in places where charitable collections take place, the management should make the above 2 checks well in advance of each collection.

At a subsequent briefing at the London Assembly, it was suggested that, in premises where such checks are made, a notice to that effect could usefully be displayed.