Charity at South Western Railway

In line with FirstGroup policy, any donations made must be to charities registered with either:

• Charities registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales
• Charities registered with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR)
• Community Interest Charities (CIC) registered in the UK with the Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Charities
• Charities which hold a 501(c)(3) exemption in the USA
• Charities registered with the Canada Revenue Agency

Almost any registered charity (or CIC) is eligible, but unfortunately, the following exclusions apply:

• Political parties or organisations who promote a specific political party
• Organisations that promote a specific religion or requires beneficiaries to be of a specific faith, convert to that faith or accept information or teaching about that faith as a condition of taking part in or benefitting from programmes and or services
• Any organisation that could be deemed to have a controversial or negative impact on the reputation of FirstGroup plc
• Individuals or groups who are looking for sponsorship or in-kind support (e.g. tickets) for fundraising activities, or financial support for things such as medical costs, including our own employees’
• Salaries of individuals within charitable organisations
• Crowd-funded appeals
• Core costs for a charity, including for buildings, salaries, general running, management or travel costs
• Running costs for charitable events, including marketing materials, room hire, charitable expeditions or overseas travel for individuals or groups and UK travel/ transport
• Universities, colleges or schools, pre-schools and nurseries including Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs), even where these are a registered charity
• Scouts, Girl Guides, Cadets or similar organisations
• The Arts (e.g. theatre, choirs, cultural projects)
• Sports charities and clubs (unless there is a strong focus on education, employability and skills or sustainable and accessible mobility)
• Animal Welfare charities

When you complete a form:

1. We reserve the right to share the details you have provided in this application form with the Fundraising Regulator (FR) and Charity Commission (CC) at their request.
2. Please read through the “Code of Fundraising Practice - Static Collections” information which can be located on the FR website. Failure to abide by these guidelines may result in your collector being removed from our premises and a blanket ban being placed on your charity from collecting in any of our stations in future.
3. We reserve the right to count the proceeds of your collection once it has been completed and share the total with the Charity Commission.
4. We reserve the right to refuse future collection applications should you not inform us of the amount raised within 30 days of the collection taking place.
5. Preference will be given to Fundraising Standards Board members.