Supporter Promise 

Treating our supporters with respect  

Affinity Trust will commit to fundraising in an honest and transparent way. We will promote best practice in this new area of fundraising and demonstrate compliance with the law to ensure we treat new supporters with respect. We will achieve this by ensuring that supporting us either with a one-off or monthly donation, a gift in your Will or leaving a gift in memory of a loved one, will be a positive and rewarding experience.  

To show our commitment to fundraising from individual supporters, we will adhere to the following promises by complying with the Guidelines for Charitable Organisations on Fundraising from the Public.  

We have high standards 

Affinity Trust: 

We are clear, honest and open 

  • We tell the truth and do not exaggerate 
  • we do what we say we are going to do with donations we receive  
  • we are clear about who we are and what we do 
  • where we ask a third party to fundraise on our behalf, we will make this relationship and the financial arrangement transparent 
  • we are able to explain our fundraising costs and show how they are in the best interests of our cause, if challenged 
  • we ensure our complaints process is clear and easily accessible 
  • we provide clear and evidence-based reasons for our decisions on complaints.

We are respectful 

  • We respect the rights and privacy of all our supporters and that their data is safe with us. We take our obligations very seriously and we will never sell, swap or pass your details to third party organisations for their own marketing purposes 
  • from time to time we may use other companies to provide services on our behalf, including delivering post, analysing data and processing donations. We will only provide those companies with the information they need, and we will make sure that any supporter data is treated with the same level of care as if we were handling it directly 
  • we do not put undue pressure on any supporter to make a gift. If someone does not want to give or wish to cease giving, we will respect their decision 
  •  we are sensitive to fundraising from vulnerable individuals. Our staff and partners adhere to the Chartered Institute of Fundraising’s policy on vulnerable people. For further information please read our Vulnerable Supporter Policy. 
  • where the law requires, we will get an individual’s consent before we contact them to fundraise 
  • if an individual contacts us to tell us that they don’t want us to be contacted in a particular way we will not do so. We will work with the Telephone, Mail and Fundraising Preference Services to ensure that those who choose not to receive specific types of communication don’t have to. 
  • if an individual is registered with the Mail Preference Service and/or the Telephone Preference Service, we won't contact them unless they have given us their address and/or telephone number and their permission for us to use it. 
  • if an individual has given us their email address and permission to use it, they will receive emails from us, we will make sure they can stop them or change the sort of emails they receive 

We are accountable and responsible 

  • We will do all we can to ensure that our fundraisers, volunteers and third-party agencies working with us comply with all fundraising regulations and this promise 
  • where we work with third party agencies, we will offer guidance and monitor their work.  
  • where we work with external suppliers, we will make sure they operate to the same high standards that we set ourselves, exceeding the requirements set out by regulatory bodies. 
  • will always take action if any third-party agency or external supplier acting on behalf of Affinity Trust fails to meet our standards. 
  • we will always provide easy ways for a supporter to contact us, and our Supporter Care Team will be on hand to help answer any queries they may have 
  • if a supporter is unhappy with anything we’ve done, they can contact us to make us aware of a concern or a complaint using our complaints policy. If we make a mistake, we will apologise and do everything to put things right. However, if we cannot resolve their complaint, we accept the authority of the Fundraising Regulator to make a final adjudication 
  • we monitor and record the number of complaints we receive each year and share this data with the Fundraising Regulator on request. 

Further information 

If a supporter has any questions, wish to change their mind about how we contact them, want to be contacted in a different way, or if they would like to opt out of communications, they can contact us by calling 01844 267 800 and pressing option 1 for Admin or by using our dedicated email address: supportercare@affinitytrust.org