Considerations for trustees of charities who wish to help people affected by the war in Ukraine

The war in Ukraine has left many of us wishing to donate to help the people of Ukraine and those affected by the war. If your charity is planning on raising funds to donate to Ukraine, here are some considerations to think of first:

• Whilst supporting the people affected by the war in Ukraine is an extremely worthwhile cause, you must ensure that donating to such a cause would be in line with the charitable objectives as set out in your charity’s governing document. If making such a donation would not be in furtherance of your specified charitable purposes, you would be required to amend the charitable objectives. The Scottish Charities Regulator (OSCR) have advised that they will deal with such applications urgently.
• The income received from any fundraising for Ukraine and the subsequent donation from your charity to the Ukraine appeal should be recorded in your charity’s accounts in the Statement of Financial Activities. This is the position irrespective of how long the funds are held before being donated to Ukraine.
• The income received from the fundraising should be shown as restricted income in your charity’s accounts and the donation made should be shown as restricted expenditure.
• If large amounts of income are being raised, attention will have to be paid to what impact this may have on your charity’s income levels and whether any thresholds will be breached. Currently, accruals accounts, as opposed to receipts and payments accounts, are required to be prepared where a charity’s gross annual income exceeds £250,000. For charities whose gross annual income exceeds £500,000, an audit is required rather than an independent examination.
• Gift aid could be claimed on the donations received by your charity (subject to the normal gift aid rules) and consideration would need to be given to whether the gift aid amounts should also be donated to the appeal. Normally, this will be at the discretion of the trustees.
• An alternative way to raise funds for people affected by the war in Ukraine, without having to be concerned with the above considerations, would be to include the link to the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal on your charity’s website or newsletter. This would allow people to donate to the appeal directly: https://www.dec.org.uk/appeal/ukraine-humanitarian-appeal

If you would like more information on the above points, OSCR have produced a helpful guide on their website: https://www.oscr.org.uk/news/ukraine-what-should-charities-do-in-response-to-the-war/

Photo by Daria Volkova on Unsplash