Supporter policies

Our commitment to you: London Wildlife Trust’s Supporter Promise

When you give to London Wildlife Trust, we promise that:

 1.      We will use your donation to create a London alive with nature, where everyone can experience and enjoy wildlife.

We take great care of all the financial gifts we receive from our supporters. We promise to use your donation wisely, and to show clearly how we use our resources in our annual report, annual review and other publications.

2.      We will thank you.

We promise to thank you properly for your kind support of London Wildlife Trust’s work. We aim to bring you closer to the projects that you are supporting, and we will do this by sharing stories and achievements, and updating you on how we are using your gift.

3.      We will tell you about other ways you can help London’s wildlife, if you want us to.

We are committed to protecting London’s wildlife by working together with you. When you give us permission to do so, we will ask you for further donations towards this work. When we ask for help, we will clearly explain why it is needed. We won’t put pressure on you to make a donation.

4.      We will get in touch with you only in the ways you ask us to.

We will only contact you by email, phone or text message if you have explicitly told us we can. We will only contact you with relevant messages and we will always make it easy for you to let us know how you would rather we stay in touch – or if you would like us not to contact you at all. We will not get in touch with you if you ask us not to.

 5.      We will value your feedback, and act on it where possible.

We want to make your experience of giving to London Wildlife Trust a great one – so please get in touch with us and tell us how we can improve it. We will act on your feedback wherever possible.

 6.      We will look after your personal information.

We will never share your personal details with other organisations for marketing purposes, or sell it to other charities. We aim to uphold the highest standards in data protection and we store your personal details securely. Our full privacy policy can be found here.

 7.      We will comply with the law and best practice in all our fundraising.

We fundraise in line with the UK Code of Fundraising Practice, the General Data Protection Regulations and the Charities Act.

Our refund policy

If you do not believe we have used your donation in the way you wanted or expected it to be used, we will be happy to refund your donation to you if you get in touch with us.

Fundraising law

London Wildlife Trust is registered with the Fundraising Regulator, who set and maintain the standards for charitable fundraising in the UK.

Complaints

Please see our Complaints Procedure below, covering all of the Trust’s activities, including fundraising, here. Even if you simply wish to raise an issue rather than make a complaint, e.g. you felt that our fundraising materials were unclear; we would still like to hear from you so we can improve the standard of our fundraising.

If you wish to make a complaint 

Please contact us either by:

• Calling 020 7803 4272
• Writing to London Wildlife Trust, Fivefields, 8-10 Grosvenor Gardens, Victoria, London, SW1W 0DH.
• Emailing enquiries@wildlondon.org.uk
• You can also arrange to have a face to face meeting.
   

• If you call us every effort will be made to resolve the complaint over the phone unless further information is required to do so.
• However, if you prefer to make the complaint in writing or it cannot be resolved over the phone, then we will reply to you, in writing, within 15 days.
• This letter will confirm that your complaint has been logged and it will either give you details of how we have resolved it or let you know that it will be looked into and resolved within 30 days.
• Details of the complaint are then logged in our Complaints Record.
• If the complaint has not yet been resolved, we will look into it and we will notify you of the outcome, in writing, within 30 days.
• If you are still unhappy with the outcome we will pass on all the information you need to refer the complaint to the Fundraising Regulator.

The response times mentioned above are the maximum response times – usually someone will get back to you as soon as possible.

Even if you simply wish to raise an issue rather than make a complaint, e.g. you felt that our fundraising materials were unclear; we would still like to hear from you so we can improve our standard of our fundraising.

We record each complaint or issue raised to ensure that we are taking action when we should and that our fundraising is carried out in a manner that satisfies our members, volunteers and the public.

Introduction

We are committed to protecting London’s wildlife by working together with you, and we believe that giving to a cause you are passionate about should be a positive experience. We believe everyone has the right to donate if they wish to and are able to do so.

We know that it may be difficult in some situations for fundraisers to decide whether or not someone is in a vulnerable circumstance or lacks capacity. We provide guidelines for fundraisers, but our approach is always to err on the side of caution.

Our policy on fundraising and vulnerable people applies to all fundraising, by our employees and volunteers, or through a third party or agency. It applies to all types of fundraising, be it face to face, over the phone or written.

We are registered with the Fundraising Regulator, adhere to the Code of Fundraising Practice and our Fundraising and Vulnerable People policy is informed by the Code and the Institute of Fundraising’s Treating Donors Fairly: Fundraising with People in Vulnerable Circumstances guidance.

What is a vulnerable person?

We recognise that some of the people we engage with through our fundraising activities will not always have the capacity or be in the circumstances to fully understand the nature of the donation they are being asked to make to London Wildlife Trust, or the consequences of making that donation.

There are two different types of circumstances where we can judge someone to be vulnerable:

• If someone does not have the mental capacity to make a decision
• If someone is in vulnerable circumstances

It is important to recognise the difference between these in order to judge whether someone lacks the capacity to make a decision, or needs more information and support to be able to make a decision to donate. Fundraisers need to be aware of this difference so that they can make a reasoned judgment and act appropriately when communicating with existing or potential supporters.

Recognising a vulnerable person

A person in either circumstance described above, who find it difficult to immediately make an informed decision about the choices offered to them is called a ‘vulnerable person’.

A vulnerable person may be:

• Someone with a diagnosed condition such as dementia
• Someone going through a time of stress or anxiety, e.g. a recent bereavement, redundancy
• Someone with an undiagnosed or temporary mental health condition such as severe anxiety
• Someone with a severe physical illness
• Someone with learning difficulties
• Someone who has difficulty understanding the language
• Someone who is homeless
• Someone who is experiencing financial vulnerability

Our obligation to protect vulnerable people

We have an obligation to protect vulnerable people when fundraising. This includes respecting a vulnerable person’s desire to make a donation unless they lack the mental capacity to make this decision. Whenever we suspect that someone we are engaging with is a vulnerable person, we will take steps to end the interaction with them in a way which seeks to:

• Protect that person
• Protect their dignity
• Note any desire they have expressed to support London Wildlife Trust

Fundraising and vulnerable supporters

If we think that someone does not have the mental capacity to make a decision, we will not take a donation from this person. If we later find this to be the case, we will return any donation made. We will not contact this person to ask for donations in the future and will make sure a record is in place so that if they contact us in future we are able to respond appropriately.

If someone is in vulnerable circumstances, this person may still have the mental capacity to choose to make a donation but may need additional support or additional time to help them make their decision. If somebody discloses to us that they are in a vulnerable circumstance, we will engage with them as an individual to ascertain what support they may need and to ensure that they understand the financial decision they are making. We will consult them about their contact preferences and what forms of communication they are comfortable receiving. With their consent, we will make a note of what they have told us on their supporter record, so that we can better support them with future donations and reaffirm their preferences.  

If a fundraiser working for London Wildlife Trust thinks that a person they are talking to may be vulnerable but does have the capacity to decide to donate, they will:

• Ask questions to help affirm the person’s understanding of the donation they are making, and the consequences of making that donation
• They will do this without asking about the person’s personal circumstances
• If appropriate, give the person additional time to make a decision and arrange to contact them again in the future to see if they would still like to make the donation

We recognise that sometimes be difficult for fundraisers to assess the vulnerability of a supporter; in cases where a fundraiser is unsure, they must ask their manager for a second opinion and approval to accept any donation.

Third parties

We may be alerted to a supporter being vulnerable by a family member or carer. This is assessed on a case by case basis as we need to ensure we comply with data protection laws as well as acting to protect the vulnerable person in question. Where we are given information we will act upon this and our database will be updated to reflect this. We cannot disclose any information to the family or carer in regards to the supporter unless they have power of attorney.

Any agencies fundraising on our behalf, e.g. telephone or face-to-face fundraising agencies, are provided with our Fundraising and Vulnerable People Policy. Fundraising by third parties is monitored regularly by London Wildlife Trust.

Signposting and providing advice to people in vulnerable circumstances

It will sometimes be appropriate to signpost vulnerable people to a service or charity that might help them, e.g. by passing on a phone number or website address. Fundraisers will be made aware of relevant information they can signpost people to.