Catherine Gage examines shifting responsibilities under the 2025 Code in Fundraising Magazine
Catherine’s comments were published in Civil Society, Fundraising Magazine on 10 February 2026 and can be seen here.
Catherine Gage, Associate in our Charity department, discusses the significant shift introduced by the 2025 principles‑based Code of Fundraising Practice, which moves away from prescriptive rules and places greater responsibility on charities to justify and document their fundraising decisions.
Under the new framework, compliance is no longer demonstrated by simply following set steps, but by showing evidence of thoughtful, risk‑based decision‑making. Charities must now actively consider how their payment structures align with organisational values, apply appropriate due diligence when receiving donations, and ensure fundraisers are contractually bound to comply with the Code.
Catherine explains that while the rules have been streamlined, the expectations on organisations have increased. The Code now imposes an explicit duty to protect all fundraisers including employees, volunteers and third‑party fundraisers from harm, harassment or undue pressure. This makes volunteer protection not just good practice but a regulated requirement. To meet this obligation, charities should ensure robust volunteer agreements, clear role descriptions, appropriate training, and effective incident‑reporting mechanisms. Oversight remains critical: inadequate monitoring of third parties can still lead to regulatory findings where misconduct occurs.
She also highlights that, although the Code signposts areas such as GDPR, tax, gift aid, gambling and probate law, it deliberately avoids interpreting them. Charities must therefore engage directly with the correct regulator whether the ICO, HMRC, the Charity Commission or the Gambling Commission to ensure compliance. Legal obligations on data protection, safeguarding and electronic marketing remain unchanged, and complaints processes now require charities not only to resolve issues but to demonstrate learning and improvement. Catherine emphasises that thriving under the new Code means investing in governance, training, contracts and ethical culture: fewer prescriptive rules do not reduce liability, but instead demand stronger judgement and well‑documented decisions.
This article was originally published in Civil Society, Fundrasing Magazine, [behind paywall].