College RAG

The content on these pages are targeted at College Volunteering and RAG Representatives on College Committees. If you're a club or society looking to fundraise, please follow this link. For anything not covered on these pages, or any questions you have about fundraising in your student group, please contact Jasmine Pledger,  Student Citizenship and Employability Development Coordinator - j.pledger@yusu.org

What is College RAG?

RAG (Raising and Giving) is a fun, exciting, and varied way to raise incredible amounts of money for charity whilst also getting your students involved in College life. RAG is known for its quirky creativity and coordination of large scale events to raise money for charity.

Each College has their own dedicated partner charity for a 1 year period. The partnership intends to provide continuity and consistency for fundraising and volunteering opportunities, as well as give students the opportunity to get involved in local causes.

Integrating RAG into your College activities is a great way to engage your members with your Charity partner's work. Here you'll find guidance on the correct finance processes to follow, view our How to Fundraising Guides to ensure you do everything required to make your fundraiser a success or find inspiration with our fundraising ideas and top tips.

College RAG Accounts

Committees will often fundraise throughout the year for their charity partner or other causes. To ensure that the money you fundraise is handled correctly, you need to make sure your fundraising goes into your RAG Account.

Your RAG Account is a separate account for any fundraising you do for charity.

A separate account is required as YUSU's charitable status prohibits money being donated to other charities, political parties, campaigns, or trade unions unless specific rules are followed. This means you cannot donate directly from your College's main account, but you can deposit funds into your College RAG account and then request that the money is paid to your chosen charity through the Payment Request Form.

Ways to Fundraise

When it comes to actually raising money for charity, you have a number of different options, and this might come down to the type of fundraising event you are organising. The different options available to you are:

Fundraising Event Planning Process

Being on a college committee provides you with a great opportunity to fundraise for a cause you care about whilst having an audience of supporters who can promote your events, support your ideas and help you reach your fundraising goal. You may choose to fundraise for a charity your college is partnered with already, for a one-off cause such as Comic Relief or Children in Need, or for a different cause entirely. Whichever charity you choose to raise money for, use the information below as a flowchart to guide you through the process.

Making the Charity Donation

Once your fundraiser is complete, you'll likely have all of the money raised ready to be donated. 

First, check any of the expenses have been paid out, if the event was marketed as 'all profits will be donated to xyz charity'

• For example, If you held a bake sale, has the cake maker been reimbursed or the invoice for cupcakes been paid out of the fundraising yet?

Next, total all of the funds raised for your event. Make sure all of the items you're adding up in your RAG account is for your fundraiser specifically. Is everything there, or does something look like it's missing? Money from JustGiving isn't received instantly, so these items may not be showing straight away.

Once you're happy that you're RAG account reflects all of the funds raised, complete a 'Payment Request Form' to make a charity donation.

Finally, celebrate your fundraising achievements and share how much you've raised!

Ethical Fundraising

Whoever you are fundriaisng for, your fundraising should always be ethical, and there are certain ways to ensure that it is:

• You should always let your donors know where the money is going e.g. to a specific charity / to an individual / to a YUSU group. 

• If you are doing bucket collections, your buckets should be labelled with the charity or group branding. Additionally, your buckets should have a security seal on them. These seals can be picked up from Helpdesk. If the seals become broken during the fundraising process, they are no longer valid. The security seals should be filled out with the charity number and the date on which the funds are being collected.

• If you plan to fundraise on public land you must obtain a permit from the local authority. If you are fundraising for a specific charity, it is the charity’s responsibility to obtain these permits for you. If you are fundraising for your YUSU group or campaign, please inform the RAG and Volunteering Coordinator.

• You should have information readily available for donors who ask about where their money is going - i.e. you should be able to tell them some facts about the charity/organisation and what it does.

• However, do not make promises that you can’t guarantee with regards to the exact investment of the funds, i.e. do not promise that their money will be used to buy xyz if you do not know this for a fact.