Before ordering new collection materials you must check with your Chair and/or Community Engagement Manager (CEM), as most of our network network has excess collection buckets and tins in stock locally.

The following free-to-order fundraising materials can be ordered from the Marketing Hub:

• Certificate of Authority, provides proof of approval of your collection in public areas
• prelabelled and numbered collection buckets and collection bucket seals
• prelabelled and numbered collection tins and collection tin seals
• Gift Aid envelopes
• Gifts in Wills guides and leaflets
• sashes and T-shirts exclusively for volunteers to wear when collecting donations.
   

The Marketing Hub has a section where you can create your own fundraising collection posters.

For Marketing Hub users here is a link to the editable templates sub-portal: https://www.ssafa.online/personalised-templates/c/14.

Please contact Community Marketing at [email protected] for guidance or support. If you do not have a Marketing Hub account here's how to set up a new account.

Cardboard collection boxes

There are branded cardboard boxes for closed internal event collections. If you just need one or two boxes, or you would like a box designed for your branch or team please email Community Marketing at [email protected] 

1. Administrative and material records

• Fundraising materials: you must keep a record of collection receptacles (buckets and tins) issued to collectors and when they are returned to your branch or team.

• Record keeping: best practice is your branch or team must keep records of your collections including date, location, name of collector, amount raised and confirmed banking of donations in maintained reportable records.

• Box numbering: our collection boxes and tins are pre-labelled with ID numbers. You can use this number to ID any collection receptacle used.

  The Marketing Hub keeps a record of the IDs of collection boxes and tins record against the contact name and delivery address of who ordered the materials. You will need to keep a 'chain-of-custody' record of who has each of your collection buckets and tins.

• Two-person rule: cash collections must be counted and recorded by two unrelated people in a secure place whenever possible.

• Receipts: we must issue receipts to our collectors when they return sealed boxes. For collections on third party private sites (like supermarkets and pubs), we must provide a receipt to the site manager if they request one, including the site address, box number, date, and amount raised.

• Banking collections:

  • Advise the collector to break the collection tin/bucket seal in the presence of a witness, count the money, and pay in the funds directly into the the branch or team bank account or by converting into a cheque.

  • Your branch or team should be able provide the collector with their unique reference number to use when paying in the money via BACS. Their name or collector ID should appear on the bank statement and will be used for income reconciliation.

     

• Recording collections: collections sent to your branch or team via BACS or cheque should be recorded locally in maintained reportable records.

For information on risk assessment and due diligence, please refer to Guidelines for collecting charity donations from the public. 

General recycling and waste disposal guidance

• always recycle where possible
• check your local council recycling rules
• if in doubt if a product is recyclable, please read the Marketing Hub product page or contact Community Marketing at [email protected] for guidance.

Remove SSAFA labels

Once you have decided a bucket or tin is no longer usable the SSAFA label must be removed as a fraud prevention measure.

Recycle collection buckets and tins

Although made from recycled materials the blue collection buckets and tins cannot be recycled. We advise that you:

• Remove label.
• If no other option is available, place in general waste bins.

Our red collection bucket and tins minus the SSAFA label, and our cardboard collection boxes, are recyclable, so can be placed in recycle bins.

Reuse and recycle tips

Remove label and wash bucket or tin, then:

• consider donating buckets and tins to other local or smaller charities - this is best practice as it is great networking opportunity
• consider reusing redundant tins as money / saving boxes
• consider using redundant buckets, or donating them, as household or garden buckets
• please do not send collection materials to the London office; contact your CEM or the Community Marketing team to find out the recycling best practice in your region
• most major household waste recycling centres will accept redundant buckets and tins for recycling.

For convenience and online giving (such as tap-to-donate, unattended tins, QR codes etc.), we need to provide accessible, clear and accurate, supporting donation information including our charity name, Charity Number, and details of any processing fees applicable to donations. We must also have a written agreement with site managers for unattended collections.

Unattended collections: using unattended tins is not recommended, but if you have proof that makes it a viable option please:

• order from the Marketing Hub, and use, prelabelled and numbered collection tins with a chain
• order from the Marketing Hub, and leave behind a few bundles of our regional contact cards with the site contact or beside the unattended tin, if possible. We recommend SCTs leave behind the SCT trifold leaflet that can be personalised and printed via the Marketing Hub
• record location, our on-site contact and date last checked by volunteer on an all-branch or all-team accesible record
• try and have a location visited every three months at the very least, preferable every month
• make sure that your locally held unattended collection tin information is accesible to at least three volunteers in your team or branch.