Advice on raising money for an individual

lbr102

I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on fundraising money for an individual person?

Last year we went to Gambia, West Africa and met a very nice man there who was very helpful to us and took great care of us. We had an idea that we would love to buy him a car and drive it down there for him. The average salary over there is £40 a month where as he could make £40 on a good day as a tourist taxi driver. This idea has since been extended further and we would like to drive down in a convoy with other people. We would then like to give away the remaining cars to locals or if this would not be possible, we would like to sell them and donate the money to the village school or another community project. Alternatively we could donate them to the local SOS children’s orphanage.

We think we could fund a fair bit of this trip ourselves but also think we will need to fundraise a bit. The things that we would probably fundraise for would be the car itself, car insurance, petrol and any unexpected repair costs (shouldn’t be too much as hopefully we can make it to Africa without any major dramas and once we are there it is cheap). Hotels, food and flight back would be paid for by us.

There is already a Plymouth to Banjul (capital of Gambia) rally where cars are auctioned off at the end, but as we would want to help this individual, we would not be able to do this.

The planning is still in the early stage so I am sorry if I am a bit vague, but I wanted to find out if we would be allowed to fundraise for such a cause? Are we legally allowed to fundraise for an individual? Of course we would check with him first if he would be happy for us to do this for him as we would not want to cause offence. The main problem is whether we would actually be allowed to do it? The fundraising would probably involve a couple of pub quiz nights, a charity car wash, car boot sales and company sponsorship (from the companies that we all work at).

Any help would be much appreciated.

fengirl_2

You can legally fundraise for an individual, as long as you don't describe it as charitable in any way. Your advertising and literature should make it clear that it is for an individual and I would recommend having a separate bank account for this money.
You need to have a plan B for where the moeny will go if you fail to raise the full amount, also have a target date and target amount.

lbr102

fengirl wrote: »

You can legally fundraise for an individual, as long as you don't describe it as charitable in any way. Your advertising and literature should make it clear that it is for an individual and I would recommend having a separate bank account for this money.
You need to have a plan B for where the moeny will go if you fail to raise the full amount, also have a target date and target amount.

Thanks for the advice. That's good news. We would pick a back up of a Gambian charity incase we can not raise the money, however I would think that we should be able to raise it and possibly more, in which case we would also state the cause as to where the extra cash would go.

So we wouldn't need to register as a charity or anything like that? Sorry for my ignorance on the issue! I am totally clueless on this.

Lazy_Ike

lbr102 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. That's good news. We would pick a back up of a Gambian charity incase we can not raise the money, however I would think that we should be able to raise it and possibly more, in which case we would also state the cause as to where the extra cash would go.

So we wouldn't need to register as a charity or anything like that? Sorry for my ignorance on the issue! I am totally clueless on this.

Be warned, that no matter what the car might be for, a benevalent gift, or a donation to a charity, there could well be steep Customs Duties to pay. As a former resident of two African countries I speak from experience where huge amounts of money were (legally) charged as Duty on Charity Items . In some instances the import duty was so high the items were just surrendered to the Govt as the intended recipients and the sending Charity just did not have the funds to pay. Not wanting to put you off, but forewarned is fore armed. The Gambia High Commission should be able to advise you.

fengirl_2

You cannot register as a charity as you are only benefitting one individual - which is why I said that you cannot describe this as a charitable campaign.

lbr102

Lazy_Ike wrote: »

Be warned, that no matter what the car might be for, a benevalent gift, or a donation to a charity, there could well be steep Customs Duties to pay. As a former resident of two African countries I speak from experience where huge amounts of money were (legally) charged as Duty on Charity Items . In some instances the import duty was so high the items were just surrendered to the Govt as the intended recipients and the sending Charity just did not have the funds to pay. Not wanting to put you off, but forewarned is fore armed. The Gambia High Commission should be able to advise you.

Thanks for the advice. I am in contact with a couple of people who can help me understand the laws in the Gambia with regards to bringing in the car. I will also contact the Gambia High Commission to be sure. At the moment this is all in the very early stages. Thanks for the help.

lbr102

fengirl wrote: »

You cannot register as a charity as you are only benefitting one individual - which is why I said that you cannot describe this as a charitable campaign.

Right well that's good news. Thank you. I am just still a bit concerned as to whether we need to do anything to make our fundraising 'official'. The last thing we would want to is get into any trouble whilst doing this! As you said before, be clear on any promotional material as to what we are raising the money for which will do. But really just wanted to make sure that there isn't any kind of papers we need to fill in/any governement run agency we need to inform of our actions.

fengirl_2

No, the Charity Commission is only concerned to protect the good name of charity. If you are not describing yourself as a charity or charitable, then you can collect for this cause - the donors have to be given clear info to ensure they are not being mislead and that they understand what they are giving to.

Savvy_Sue

Another 'issue' to think about at an early stage would be the hurdles your Gambian friend would have to overcome in order to work legally as a taxi driver. There may not be any, but there again ... And how easy it will be to keep a car on the road over there, especially important to make sure you don't take a car over which just can't be repaired / have spares imported sensibly etc. Same with any other cars taken over: they need to be practical. And how will you decide who gets one? Are cars the right answer, even?

I would be asking at an early stage what your friend sees as most useful. Aid / development has been littered with examples of what people NOT already there THINK would be useful.