• Fundraising
• How charities use your money
• Who regulates fundraising?
• How to make a complaint
• General vs. specific appeals
• Membership and sponsorship schemes
• Fundraising FAQs
• Fundraising factsheets
  • Mailings addressed to you
  • Unaddressed mail
  • Telephone fundraising
  • Street fundraising
  • Doorstep fundraising
  • Advertising in newspapers and magazines
  • TV and radio advertising
  • Raffles and lotteries
  • Fundraising events
  • Internet fundraising
  • Mail order trading
  • Leaving a gift in your Will
  • Gifts in memory
• Fundraising costs
• Fundraising case studies

First contact the charity and find out whether they are writing to you as someone who already gives to them – or are mailing you to try to get you to support them for the first time.

Remember that even if you give to them through, for example, a local group, a collection bucket or through a charity shop and count yourself as a supporter of their work, they may not have this recorded centrally.

If you are getting too many mailings sent by a charity you already give to, tell them you want to reduce the amount you receive.

They should be able to do this – either by, say, writing to you just once a year, or by stopping certain types of mailing. Some charities may also be able to contact you by email instead of through the post if this is what you want.

If you are getting too many mailings from charities you do not give to, these could be coming through two routes:

1. Charities you do give to may be passing your name on to other charities. ‘Your’ charity will have given you the chance to tick a box opting out of this when you first gave to them (or soon after) - they are required to do this under Data Protection law. However – this would have come in the ‘small print’ on a form so you may have missed it. Tell them you want to stop your name being passed to other organisations.
2. Your name may be being rented to charities by companies that rent mailing lists. You can stop this by registering with The Mailing Preference Service. The MPS hold details of individuals to whom unsolicited mail should not be sent.