Getting into the promotion zone

If you’re running a charity, then you’ll be aware of the legal requirement to promote your charitable status to the public.

A quick, simple and free way to show the public that you’re a charity – and proud of it

This is set out in section 15 of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005. We’ve produced guidance on what’s required for easy reference. Aside from the legal requirement, it’s good practice and good sense to show the public that you’re a charity. It demonstrates transparency, encourages goodwill and, hopefully, encourages more donations. At the Scottish Charity Regulator we recently set up a charity registration logo that you can download free of charge and use on your charity’s website and email signatures.

• What’s it for? It’s an easy way to show the public that your organisation is a charity registered in Scotland. It’s bright and bold, and we hope that as many charities as possible use it to highlight individual entries in the Scottish Charity Register.
• How should it be used? If your organisation is a charity, you can download the artwork free of charge from our website. Ideally, you should link it through to your charity’s entry in the Register – you can find this easily using our Register Search.
• Why is it needed? Charity law says that you have to promote your charitable status on certain documents. We think it’s a good idea to be as transparent as possible, and show the public clearly, with a link to further information about your charity.
• Can it be used on printed material? No, the logo is intended for electronic use only and shouldn’t be reproduced on print or display material. You can still highlight your charitable status on these items by printing your charity number as set out in our guidance.
• Do you provide technical support? We don’t, although the artwork is available in the most popular formats and it should be very easy for your website designer to download it and set up the link.  If you do have a problem with the download, you can contact us here.

Hopefully you’ll find this useful. And as well as using the logo on your own site and emails, share it far and wide. We’re keen to see as many charities as possible taking this up. It’s a quick, simple (and of course free!) means of showing the public that you’re a charity – and proud of it! Judith Pogorzelec is Communications and Website Officer at the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR).