Queercircle

Purpose

The purpose of this document is to:

Help ensure that funding relationships do not indirectly support activities that are counter to the QUEERCIRCLE’s mission
Protect QUEERCIRCLE’s reputation, by supporting decision-making on funding opportunities
Provide guidance on the types of companies, funders and fundraising events that QUEERCIRCLE will or will not be associated with in pursuing fundraising to support delivery of its mission.

Responsibility

This policy has been co-developed by the Board of Trustees and QUEERCIRCLE team.

Procedures

The Director will have regular meetings with Trustees ahead of wider Board Meetings to discuss any funding partnerships outside of the set fundraising strategy.
Fundraising and Sponsorship is a regular agenda item at weekly team meetings.
A sub committee for fundraising will be formed in 2024.
A steering committee bringing together various stakeholders will be formed in 2024 to ensure wider community involvement in the development and implementation of this policy.

1. Rationale for Fundraising

To help guarantee the availability of ongoing funds to pay for its work, QUEERCIRCLE aims to maintain a broad base of different sources of funding. The purpose of this policy is to ensure clarity and openness to all our stakeholders.

QUEERCIRCLE has developed a dynamic fundraising strategy that includes 5 income streams: Individual Giving, Public Sector, Trusts and Foundations, Corporate Giving and Earned Income.

2. Key Issues for the Organisation to Consider

QUEERCIRCLE has a responsibility to its stakeholders and participants to consider the ethical issues that may arise in working with or accepting funding from an organisation/individual and the associated risks to reputation and organisational objectives.

Donations, funding and partnerships which may pose a risk to QUEERCIRCLE include:

those which could lead to negative associations and:
The loss of donations from other supporters
The loss of volunteers whose services would be of equivalent or greater value than the gift or partnership
The loss of staff or the inability to recruit staff with the necessary skills and dedication

3. Policy Points

Context

QUEERCIRCLE actively seeks opportunities to work together with external organisations and individuals to achieve shared objectives. However, it is vital that QUEERCIRCLE maintains its independence and does not allow any external partnership to bring the name of the Organisation into Disrepute or is contrary to QC’s charitable objectives.

The Organisation therefore accepts financial support from, and partnership working with, companies and individuals on the following conditions:

There are strong grounds for believing that it will result in a benefit to QUEERCIRCLE’s beneficiaries
The Director and trustees are satisfied that no adverse publicity will result from accepting such support
There is no attempt on the part of the company or individual to influence QUEERCIRCLE’s policy or actions either explicitly or implicitly
That initiatives do not compromise the independent status of QUEERCIRCLE
They do not participate in business practices that are counter to QUEERCIRCLE’s mission.
QUEERCIRCLE may want to enter into a partnership in which it will actively endorse or promote a company. However, if QUEERCIRLCE enters into a partnership but does not infer endorsement, a disclaimer statement to this effect will be included alongside any branding or promotion associated with products. E.g. ‘The use of this logo does not imply any endorsement by QUEERCIRCLE of this company, its products or services’
Only QUEERCIRCLE will have direct access to its database and beneficiaries
In order to ensure that all cause-related promotion reflects QUEERCIRCLE’s values, any potential initiative must come to the Director and relevant governance committee for approval.

Avoidance Criteria

QUEERCIRCLE will not accept any funding from individuals and/or companies directly involved in activities that run contrary to its overall charitable objectives / vision / aims. QUEERCIRCLE takes a critical and intersectional approach to our fundraising. We will not participate in the pinkwashing of genocide, ecological destruction, or any other form of violence. We refer to the Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index, Ethical Consumer, Good on You Directory and the BDS Movement among others to inform our decisions.

Other reputational risks

QUEERCIRCLE will also refuse donations from those that are known to instigate or repeat views of an inflammatory or derogatory nature concerning someone’s race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion, culture, or any other aspect of that person's life which are counter to QUEERCIRCLE’s purposes and values.

Due Diligence

Due Diligence may be carried out on donations of £5,000 or more from individuals, £25,000 or more from grantmaking trusts, any unsolicited corporate donations and all businesses which QUEERCIRCLE is actively partnering with.

Due diligence of donations of £25,000 or above will require sign off and approval from the Board of Trustees in consultation with the wider team. For anything below this amount, the QUEERCIRCLE team will submit all due diligence checks to the Board of Trustees, including pros and cons of accepting/rejecting any funding.

In line with Charity Commission guidance, if a donation of £25,000 or more is received from an unknown or unverifiable source, it is to be reported to the Charity Commission as a serious incident. N.B. This only applies when the donor is completely anonymous, not when the donor is known to QUEERCIRCLE but wishes to remain publicly Anonymous. Research is carried out using a range of publicly available sources which may include the Electoral Register, Companies House, the Register of Charities, the Charity Commission, newspaper reports and company websites.

Acceptance Criteria

When deciding whether to accept any particular donation, the Director and Trustees have a duty to demonstrate to the Charity Commission that they have acted in the best interest of the charity, and that association with any particular donor does not compromise QUEERCIRCLE’s ethical position, harm its reputation or put future funding at risk.

QUEERCIRCLE complies with all relevant legislation, including money laundering rules, the Bribery Act and Charity Commission guidance, including terrorism and political activity. QUEERCIRCLE would therefore not accept any of the following where the donation:

• Was known to be associated with criminal sources and/or illegal activity

• Would help further a donor’s personal objectives which conflict with those of the Organisation

• Would lead to a possible decline in support for the Organisation, and so risk a fall in the

resources available to fund its work or damage its longer-term fundraising prospects

• Would otherwise impact adversely on the Organisation’s reputation

• Accepting a donation from any particular source is inconsistent with Government policy

The Organisation will actively seek support from donors and companies, and will prioritise those whose practices align to its mission including: pay the living wage, are a DECA accredited Disability Confident Employer, have Green Mark Environmental Accreditation, have relevant industry or supply chain accreditations.

Purchasing

QUEERCIRCLE will not knowingly purchase goods and/or services produced and delivered under conditions which involve any form of abuse or exploitation of third parties. Evidence (not exhaustive) of such abuse and exploitation includes:

• The use of child labour

• Failure to pay employees a minimum wage

• Working hours are excessive

• Evidence of any form of inhuman, unreasonable or discriminatory treatment of employees

• Undertake practices that violate human rights through environmentally unsustainable business practices.

QUEERCIRCLE expects suppliers to accept responsibility for labour and environmental working conditions under which products are made and services are provided, and to make written statement of intent regarding the company’s policy.

Management

To manage funding partnerships within an ethical framework, QUEERCIRCLE will develop a protocol to approach partnership agreements. This could simply outline expectations. For a partnership considered to have some level of risk, either because it is higher amount, multi-year, high-profile, involves use of logos or other collateral, or because of donor track record, QUEERCIRCLE may request a full disclosure principle, requiring the partner to provide information on its business practice, in relation to specific ethical / avoidance criteria, so that the organisation can make an informed decision.

All partnership agreements are a legal contract clearly outlining the benefits and acknowledgements in return for support, whether grants or partnerships. All partnership agreements will be passed by the Board for ratification. Likewise for individual donations, although not a contract, a pledge form and accompanying list of benefits in return for support will be sent with the documents to finalise the pledge.

Further Points

QUEERCIRCLE recognises that, in accepting funding from statutory bodies, it must consider the policy implications and obligations that might be tied to it and ensure that these do not contravene the aims of QUEERCIRCLE.

QUEERCIRCLE will not allow any supporter to compromise our policy independence and all supporters, and staff associated with these supporters, must be clear that the positions we take are based on our independent assessment of the most effective way to advance our mission. They are not constrained in any way by the policy or priorities of any organisations or individuals that support us.

QUEERCIRCLE can seek to raise funds from a series of charitable Trusts and Foundations, but recognises that, simply because these have been registered with the Charity Commission does not mean that they are ethical givers. QUEERCIRCLE therefore does not accept money from any charitable Trust where its source funding might run contrary to the QUEERCIRCLE’s aims, or if it is a requirement of grant receipt to advertise any company or organisation whose activities run contrary to the QUEERCIRCLE’s aims.

QUEERCIRCLE will maintain accountability and open and honest relationships with all its partners, by regularly monitoring and evaluating its work.

This statement of policy is meant as a working guide for QUEERCIRCLE. Any final decisions will be governed by the Board of Trustees. It is the duty of the Board to advise of any potential conflicts of interest with regards to funding or partnerships, and for the Board to act in the best interests of the Organisation at all times.

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FUNDRAISING POLICY

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