If you are a charity communicator, there is no escape from the recent changes to fundraising regulation, which came into effect on 1 November 2025.
The updated Code of Fundraising raises the standard for how fundraising messages are planned, worded and evidenced. You need to be just as focused on accuracy, fairness and donor experience, as you are on impact and creativity.
What has changed in the Code of Fundraising?
The updated Code is shorter and adopts a principles-based approach, placing clear responsibility on charities to manage risk, respect fundraisers, and keep communications honest and respectful.
Every appeal, case study, social media post or fundraising webpage needs to be carefully considered and well documented, tested for whether it might mislead, pressure, overstate need or leave out material information. And you need to be able to explain, if a complaint is investigated, why your approach was right for your charity’s circumstances.
What does it mean in practice?
The biggest practical shift is in evidencing claims.
Your communications must be powerful, to effectively raise awareness of your mission, continue to drive donations and build trust in your brand. But, more than ever, what you say must be supportable, proportionate and not exaggerated. You also need to be particularly careful when beneficiaries are vulnerable, or where a story could create unfair pressure on supporters.
The regulation calls for clarity in campaign copy and donor messaging. If you say a donation will ‘change a life’, how can you demonstrate that it will? If you are raising awareness of a particular appeal or project, you must explain what will happen if you raise more or less than the target.
The Code explicitly states that if you use case studies as part of your communications strategy, they must be representative of real situations, and you must obtain clear, informed permission from anyone who can be identified.
You also need to be aware of and consider the standards for donor engagement, as these areas of the Code have been strengthened. The Code outlines four core principles to ensure that all engagement is “legal”, “open”, “honest” and “respectful”. You are expected to take all reasonable steps to ensure your messaging reflects well on your organisation and the wider sector.
A wider role for the comms team
The updated Code’s emphasis on responsible fundraising means communications cannot be designed in isolation from compliance.
That is especially important for potentially controversial campaigns, high-volume donor journeys, peer-to-peer fundraising and digital activity where content can be shared quickly and stripped of context.
This creates a real opportunity for comms specialists to work ever more closely with fundraising leads, to ensure that messaging resonates with donors, but also remains compliant with fundraising regulation.
Both perspectives are vital, when decisions are being made, whether that is how an appeal is framed, how a case study is used, or how a complaint is handled.
What should communicators do now?
The shift to principles-based regulation gives comms teams more flexibility than before, but it also raises the bar on accountability. You should take the opportunity to review templates, landing pages, donor journeys and case study processes, and tighten internal checks for anything sensitive or high-risk.
Most importantly, you should treat the Code as a chance to build trust, not simply to avoid trouble. Clear, honest, appropriate fundraising communications are more likely to protect reputation, support long-term donor confidence and strengthen public trust in the sector.
