Black tie charity event

isis333

Hi all

right where to start cause the message title is the end of the story.

I am a registered fundraiser for a charity in Newcastle upon tyne. I approached the charity last month to tell them my latest idea for fundraising.

Selling a limited edition teddy bear dressed to suit the particular charity. I understood i would need permission to use the logo on the teddies so decided not to but the charity said no to this because the were not doing any joint ventures at this time and if they were going to do it they would do it themselves to get more profit for the charity. I can except this however i see people all the time selling stuff for charity (namley ebay) and wonder how they can get away with it.

Is it a case of just do it and not tell the charity. I wouldnt afterall be using their name on the teddies but just mention the charity will get a donation?

The second point, sorry this is a long story, I am organising a black tie fund raiser for the same charity and they are again dragging thier heels on this. They want to know income and expenditure figures, and all sorts of other stuff. I am an event company so will be taking a fee, but if all goes to plan will make £8,000 for the charity on the night.

Has any one else organised an event like this and did you get hindered off the charity involved.

Hope some of you can help on this.

thanks for reading sorry it was a long one x

Savvy_Sue

Sorry you feel the charity is hindering you, but the Trustees of the charity have an obligation to know what use is being made of their name / logo. They will want to know what the income and expenditure figures are because in the past, rogue 'events organisers' have been known to run such events without passing on anything like the true profits. People dig deep because they think the charity will benefit when actually, it's not.

Now I'm not saying you're anything like this, but that's the reason.

bap98189

You say you run an event company, but don't know what the expected income and expenditure figures are for an event?

MrsManda

It's perfectly reasonable for a charity to want to know exactly what their name is going to be used for and the income/expenditure involved. Especially as you are saying that you will be taking a fee for organising it. Did they approach you to organise the black tie event or did you approach them?

As for the teddy bears, in order to use a charity's name and official logo of course you need permission and the charity has every right to want to know what you are going to do in their name. This is a bit different to selling things on ebay and stating that you will donate money raised to a charity as you are declaring you are going to donate to charity, not doing it in the name of the charity.

redpete

I am glad to see that the charity is being responsible (a they are legally bound to be) and making sure they are happy with the details of fundraising that is being done in their name.

If it all goes wrong, the evening is a disaster and no money is made then it will be the charity's name that is associated with it.

GiveItBack

Hi Isis.

I assume that you're not donating the whole amount from the sale of the bear to the charity? The thing is that you're essentially using their name to sell an item - this is licencing. If you were creating a disney character bear, you'd have to form an agreement with disney to sell it, for example, this is the same thing.

There are companies that will pay a lot to have this kind of agreement in place, so the charity has to make sure that no-one can just come along and do the same thing, or they'll potentially lose a lot of income.

I see you're in Newcastle, and the law in Scotland and England is slightly different, but be aware that if you were to simply make the bears and sell them in Scotland, then the charity coud take you to court under some specific legislation.

That might not be what you want to hear, but if you're realy keen to do this, have you thought about asking a different charity?