How to organise a street collection

Street collections can be extremely lucrative if well organised with plenty of volunteers helping on the day.

To hold a street collection, you need to apply for a street collection license from the PSNI. The licence typically lasts a whole day and each charity can only have one per year for a particular town centre.

Street collections can be made more successful if you have someone willing to wear one of our animal costumes and carrying a collecting bucket, or by taking along suitably assessed dogs.

• 1. You will need a street collection licence from the PSNI.

  The Police Service for Northern Ireland (PSNI) is responsible for granting  permits for charity street collections. ADNI will need to apply for a street collection permit prior to conducting any collection on the street.

• 2. Plan in advance
  • They will need to be covered at all times so ensure you have plenty of volunteers well in advance
  • Ensure you have plenty of collection boxes, stickers and leaflets – order more if needed
  • Do a risk assessment
  • Do you have a volunteer willing to wear a dog costume and carry a collection bucket?
  • These can certainly make your event more successful.
• 3. Find out whether you can have an information stall
  • Check in advance with the council
  • Decide on a location for the stall where you will not be blocking the pavement or a shop entrance
  • If you are planning a stall ensure that you have enough tables, table cloths, leaflets, magazines and collection boxes for it
• 4. Fundraising dogs
  • Some stores and stations allow you to take a dog along (usually depending on whether you will be standing in or outside the store). Always check with the appropriate person in advance if you are planning to take a dog
  • Any dogs that attend events must have passed an assessment
• 5, Ensure you have enough volunteers
  • You will need plenty of volunteers to man the collection
  • Also organise volunteers willing to transport everything there, set up the stall and volunteers to pack it down and return everything to the centre/hospital afterwards
  • Collections are quite tiring and 2 hours per shift is usually adequate.
  • Have as many volunteers as possible to maximise the effectiveness of your collection.
  • Spread the volunteers out throughout the town centre
  • If the weather is cold advise everyone to dress warmly and stop for hot drinks. It is advisable to provide spare gloves etc
• 6. Money must be returned directly to the centre following the event.

  • It can be stored in the safe there until it is counted and banked.

• 7. Ensure that you have organised transport to and from the collection
  • Book out the centre van or organise a volunteer willing to transport the goods to and from the event in their own car
  • Check provisions for parking at the event – is free parking available for your volunteers? If not, you might need to provide money for parking from petty cash
• 8. Ensure you have the equipment you need
  • Make sure you have plenty of collection boxes and that they all have fresh seals and numbers
  • If you’re also having a stall, decide what literature you will have on it
  • If you do not have boxes already set up with items for events, check that you have everything required in plenty of time allowing time for more to be ordered if needed
• 9. Follow the correct procedures for cash handling and collection boxes
  • Collection boxes must all be numbered, and a record kept of which box is used by which volunteer
  • Amounts raised in each box should be recorded for auditing.
• 10. It might be useful to use the two attached checklists
  • for organising the event
  • for loading the van