Purpose: This policy is intended to articulate the acceptable restrictions a donor may place on their gift and the type of fees that will be associated with these restrictions.

Preamble

The United Way Haliburton Kawartha Lakes (United Way HKL) acknowledges that the majority of its campaign revenue is generated through workplace campaigns, where the United Way is often the charity of choice.

Notwithstanding this, the organization affirms the fundamental principle that all donors have the right to designate their contributions to the charity of their choice.

As a steward of donor contributions, the United Way HKL is committed to ensuring that all donations are recorded, tracked, and administered in strict accordance with the expressed wishes of the donor. Where no specific designation is made, contributions shall, by default, be directed to general use where it is most needed.

In certain circumstances, the United Way HKL may actively solicit donations in collaboration with a prospective donor in order to address a recognized community need. In these instances, and at the discretion of the United Way HKL, designation and processing fees may be waived to ensure that the maximum possible benefit is realized for the community.

Scope

This Policy applies to all donors and prospective donors that contribute to United Way HKL’s annual fundraising campaign. This policy does not apply to Nationally Coordinated Campaigns, which may have other restrictions; United Way HKL will follow the policy of the coordinating United Way.

Policy

Recognizing the cost of raising and providing stewardship of funds, and in keeping with United Way of Canada’s Transparency Accountability and Financial Reporting guidelines, United Way will charge a 5% designation fee on donations designated to other charities (to maximum of $250) to cover some of the cost of fundraising and administration.

United Way HKL provides donors with the option to direct funds to any of the following:

• General – to go to the area of greatest need
• Local Emergency Fund
• Other United Ways
• Any registered Canadian charity (in good standing with the CRA)

Fee Structure

Below is the standard fee structure for donor directed gifts. Please note that these are standard fees and the United Way HKL reserves the right to modify or adjust these fees on a case-by-case scenario.

The United Way HKL charges the above fees to recover costs related to procesing donor choice directed gifts. Staff time is required to track, monitor, and process the cheques or EFTs to the other charities of choice by the donors. 

Additional Information

• Donations must be greater than or equal to $20 to eligible for donor choice and for a charitable tax receipt. 

• Designations to receiving grants through United Way HKL will be disbursed on top of the funding provided in the grant.  

• In special circumstances, corporate gifts and special event revenue can be designated to impact areas but cannot be designated to specific registered Canadian charities; where there is a corporate match of employee donations, the corporate gift will default to the General Fund.  

• Designation payments will be made once per year and will be pro-rated based on the total workplace collection of pledges 

• • For example, if a workplace raises $10,000 through payroll deductions and the United Way HKL is only able to collect $9,600 of these pledges (i.e. due to staff turnover at the workplace), then 96% of any designation made by an employee will be paid to the charity of choice. 

• • Note – this prorated amount only applies to payroll deduction donations, other gifts like monthly credit card and fully paid donations, the designation payout will be based on the funds received from the donor