Over the last five years, leading UK conveyancing firm Convey Law has been able to raise more than £350,000 for a variety of charities. A large proportion of this total has come from the Free Legal Fees competition. The competition encourages clients to make significant donations to charitable causes, offering the incentive of a monthly prize draw where they can win a voucher for £500 towards their legal fees.
Conveyancing Charity Foundation
After major fundraising success, Convey Law established the non-profit Conveyancing Charity Foundation in 2015 to enable other businesses in the industry to match those fundraising efforts. The Free Legal Fee Charity Competition acts as a toolkit for conveyancing companies to encourage fundraising for their own chosen charities, as well as invigorating staff through a process that is both rewarding and fun. So far more than 80% of Convey Law clients have opted to take part, raising significant sums for an array of charitable causes.
Embed This Graphic On Your Site:
How to Get Involved
Companies that are interested in taking part in the Free Legal Fees Charity Competition can get started quickly and easily. Once each property transaction has been completed, the client is invited to pay a £10 sum in order to be entered into the monthly prize draw. Of this, £1 goes into the lottery fund, whilst the other £9 (£11.25 with Gift Aid) can be donated to the chosen charity of the participating business.
Choose Your Charity
Any conveyancing business that decides to get involved with the Free Legal Fees Charity Competition can choose which charity they wish monies raised to be donated to. This helps increase employee engagement as the charity can be chosen in light of company values or causes employees feel passionate about. The charity does not need to be officially registered, although if not the Trustees of the Conveyancing Foundation will ensure that it meets the Charitable Objectives criteria.
Advertising
Once a suitable charity has been selected, the participating business can begin advertising their involvement in the competition. The Conveyancing Foundation is able to provide promotional materials if required, or each business is welcome to create their own. Each participating business is named on the Conveyancing Foundation website as a supporter and a link is established between that site and the company’s. Volume supporters will even get their own individual, uniquely designed web page.
Gift Aid
Each customer who enters the competition will be asked to consent to the terms and conditions of the competition and also sign a Gift Aid agreement form. If the donator is a UK tax payer, this turns each £9 donation into an £11.25 contribution. Copies of these signed declarations will need to be held for a minimum of six years, as copies may be required for audit purposes by the Conveyancing Foundation or by HMRC.
Not For Profit
The Conveyancing Foundation does not take any profit from the £1 contribution to the prize draw lottery. The first £500 raised each month from this pays for the prize. Surplus funds are used towards the modest costs of running the Foundation, to fund subsequent draws or are donated to the chosen charities of the Foundation.
Collecting and Processing Donations
The Foundation suggests that the £10 donation is added to each client’s Statement of Account on completion. Suggestions for wording this can be accessed on the Foundation’s website. When each participating business registers, they will be issued with the appropriate donation forms. At the start of each month, all donations should be sent to the Foundation along with client details for the prize draw.
The Prize Draw
Donors are entered into the preceding month’s prize draw by being allocated a unique competition entry number. The winning number is then selected at random by an electronic application, under the supervision of no less than two witnesses and the Director of the Foundation.
Payments to Charities
The Foundation collects the Gift Aid on all donations and then passes the money on to the chosen charity of each participating business, details of which are collected upon registering. Payments are made in the following calendar month of each prize draw.
The Free Legal Fees Charity Competition is a fantastic way to raise money for chosen charities, as well as increase the engagement of both staff and clients. The possibility of free legal fees adds excitement for donors and encourages a higher percentage of clients to take part. Convey Law has raised almost £400,000 to date through their competition and other fundraising activities. As part of the Conveyancing Foundation, more conveyancing businesses can now get involved and emulate fundraising efforts.
No comments:
Post a Comment