Frequently Asked Questions

You can make a donation in the following ways:

1. Via our website

You can easily make a donation right here on our website – please make sure to leave a comment with the reason for your donation.

2. Cheque

Please make a cheque payable to Manchester Foundation Trust Charity and post to Manchester Foundation Trust Charity, Citylabs 1.0, Maurice Watkins Building, Nelson Street, Manchester, M13 9NQ. Please include a message with your contact details.

3. Bank transfer

Please contact us on 0161 276 4522 for our bank details.

4. By phone

Please call us on 0161 276 4522 and a member of the team will be able to take your payment over the phone.

If you donate or pay money in online, you will receive an email confirmation. To keep costs down, we only send postal acknowledgements when they are requested. If you would like a postal thank you letter, please contact us: charity@mft.nhs.uk 

For every £1 we receive, 25p is spent on our Charity’s operational and fundraising costs and 75p directly supports our hospitals, patients and staff.

With your help our Charity supports projects which aim to make life easier for patients and their families, particularly when they have long or frequent stays in hospital. We do this through supporting projects to create a more friendly hospital environment or providing highly specialised equipment to improve diagnosis and treatment. We also support research projects to improve our understanding of illnesses and how best to treat them.

When you are ready to empty your collection tin, please contact our Charity Team on 0161 276 4522 and we will authorise you to open your tin. We can then send out a replacement seal to you. Please empty the tin and count the money in the presence of a witness. You can choose any of the methods listed above to get your donation to us.

As we have hundreds of collection tins across the North West, unfortunately we are unable to come and collect your collection tin. If this is a problem for you, please get in touch with your contact at the Charity. If you no longer wish to have a collection tin, please do return it to us so it can be reused.

We know that our supporters like to gift items to our hospitals, particularly during celebrations such as Christmas and Easter. However, these gifts are often not suitable for all of our patients which means many are left out. We always ask that donors consider making a cash donation instead as this will ensure you are supporting our patients all year round and helping us to make the biggest possible impact for them.

If you do decide that you would like to donate gifts to our hospital, you can contact us at charity@mft.nhs.uk or on 0161 276 4522 to find out more about the process. Please note that they must be brand new and in their original packaging – due to health and safety, we are unable to accept second-hand or homemade donations.

If you know how you want to fundraise, please register with us by filling in this form.

If you’re not sure how you want to fundraise, please take a look at our Do Your Own Fundraising and Downloadable Materials pages for inspiration.

If you’d like to discuss your ideas with us, please get in touch with us by email charity@mft.nhs.uk or call us on 0161 276 4522.

There is no minimum age to fundraise for us, but we ask that a parent or guardian registers anyone under 16 who wishes to fundraise for us.

Certain fundraising activities do have minimum ages, for example:

Collection box collectors must be 16 years of age or over.
For licensed lotteries, including raffles, children under 16 cannot buy or sell tickets.
Children under 16 cannot count collected money.

We have physical materials such as collection tins, t-shirts, balloons and stickers. Any unused materials should be returned to the charity after your event. Some of these items, such as collection tins, buckets and banners will be on loan to you and will need returning after your event to:
Manchester Foundation Trust Charity, Citylabs 1.0, Maurice Watkins Building, Nelson Street, Manchester M13 9NQ.

We also have a selection of downloadable materials to help with your fundraising. Find them here.

Unfortunately, we don’t currently have any merchandise for you to sell at your event. However, we can provide you with materials (balloons, stickers etc) to help you brand your event. Please email us to request your materials. 

If you have registered to fundraise for us you can use our logo, but any use of our logo must be approved by our Charity, before being used or printed in any materials or publications. Please email a draft of your intended publication using our logo to your contact within the Charity Team for approval.

To request a copy of our logo, and for further guidance regarding the use of our logo, please email your contact within the Charity Team.

If you have not yet registered your fundraising, please complete our online registration form.

Please get in touch with your Charity contact to see whether this is a possibility. If we are able to, we will support you. 

Unfortunately, we cannot contact our celebrity supporters and Patrons on your behalf. However, if you have a personal connection to a celebrity, you are welcome to get in touch with them.

Letting as many people as possible know about your fundraising is the best way to make it a success! You can create a JustGiving page and shout about it on your social media pages. We can’t always promote individual fundraising events on our Charity social media accounts, but if you tag us from your own social media we will do our best to like, share and comment where we can.

You can also get your local community involved and share information of your fundraising via WhatsApp to spread the word! 

Data protection laws mean we cannot share supporter data with fundraisers in order for you to promote your event.

You are more than welcome to fundraise for multiple charities, as long as the split of money between charities is clear to all those donating, and we are informed when you register with us.

We love to meet our supporters and organise cheque presentations to commemorate their achievement. However, we cannot always offer this and so this will be arranged on a case-by-case basis. Please get in touch with your Charity contact for more information.

We would advise all fundraisers working with the general public to seek public liability insurance. This will ensure that you are protected in the event of an accident or incident while fundraising for Manchester Foundation Trust Charity. There are many insurance companies that provide this, so make sure you call around for the cover that is best for your event.

It is always a good idea to risk assess your event, whatever you are undertaking. This can be a quick on-the-spot risk assessment for a simple event with only a couple of people. Events that involve more people, people purchasing tickets or something complex, we would advise that you undertake a written risk assessment at least two weeks before your event. If you require help with this, please get in touch with your contact at our Charity.

Setting up an online fundraising page is a great way to share your fundraising with as many people as possible to ask for sponsorship from family, friends and colleagues, wherever they may be. Our preferred option is JustGiving.

We do ask that you do not set up a Crowdfunding page, GoFundMe or any other similar page as we are unable to claim Gift Aid on donations made on this type of online page. Gift Aid really boosts your fundraising adding 25p to every £1 donated where applicable.

In the title section of your JustGiving page, please include the name of the hospital you are supporting so your fundraisers know exactly where their donations are going. If you choose not to select an individual hospital, your fundraising will be assigned to our Charity’s general fund, supporting priorities across our family of NHS hospitals. It’s also nice to add updates and photos to your JustGiving page to keep it fresh and exciting – and keep re-sharing!

Most online fundraising sites do charge a small transaction fee, however this will be a small percentage of the money you have raised. We do ask that if you have any offline fundraising to pay in, you send it directly to our Charity Team and not pay it in via your online page to avoid any fees.

Yes, JustGiving has instructions on how you can do this. If you encounter any issues, email your Charity contact for assistance on this.

Funds raised through JustGiving are automatically paid directly to our Charity. If you have used a GoFundMe or Crowdfunding page, you will need to close the page for the funds to be released. You will then need to send the money directly to our Charity.

Closing your page helps us to confirm your total raised. To close your JustGiving Page:

• Login to your JustGiving Page
• Go to ‘Your Fundraising’
• Click ‘Extend your page’ and move the closing date to tomorrow.
• Your page will then close and gift aid and fees will be finalised.

Gift Aid allows us to make your donation go even further.  All personal donations qualify, be it large or small, one off or regular.

If you are a UK taxpayer we can claim back the tax you have already paid on your donations. The extra income comes straight from the Government, so you can increase your donations at no cost to you. Please note that any Gift Aid we are able to claim will be treated as an unrestricted donation to our general fund.

You can complete a Gift Aid declaration here and return it to our office:

Manchester Foundation Trust Charity
Citylabs 1.0
Maurice Watkins Building
Nelson Street
Manchester
M13 9NQ

For us to be able to claim Gift Aid on your sponsorship, you need to check that each person sponsoring you is a UK taxpayer, record their home address, postcode, and donation amount, and make sure they tick the Gift Aid box on your sponsorship form or fundraising page.

Gift Aid cannot be claimed on sales of any goods, including ticket sales, raffle sales or auctions. We are also unable to claim Gift Aid on donations made by organisations or corporate sponsorship.

We can provide you with a sponsorship form to collect donations in person – please get in touch with us by email at charity@mft.nhs.uk or call us on 0161 276 4522 for this.

Street collections are a great way to raise much-needed funds however it is important to note that a permit from your local council is needed for collections in any public place. If you wish to collect in a private place (eg inside a supermarket or a shopping centre) then written permission must be obtained from the owner/management.

When planning to hold a street collection, you will need to obtain a special licence or permit from your local council which can be found here: gov.uk/find-local-council. Please note that some councils can take over four weeks to process an application and/or may allocate weekend dates months in advance, so do take this into account when you are planning your collection. Depending on the council, you may need the return form signed by an accountant. The form is used to show the council how much you have collected.

If you are planning to collect in public areas while undertaking a sponsored walk, please note that you will require a permit from each local council your route passes through.

Once you have obtained your permit, permissions and arranged a date, we can provide you with collection buckets, stickers and volunteer sashes.

Please note that as part of the street collection permit, you will need to report back to your local council on the collection, a copy of which should also be sent to our Charity.

If you require any information from our Charity team to aid you in your application, please get in touch. This is particularly important if you are planning on your collection taking place in Manchester.

We do not authorise door-to-door collections.

All raffles fall under strict laws. There are some cases where a permit from your local council may be required. If you are organising a raffle that will only sell tickets at an event and the draw is made on the same day, you will not need a permit. If you are selling tickets in advance of the day the draw will be made, you will need a permit from your local council. You can find out more from your local council’s website by searching for ‘Small Society Lottery’.

Your best sources of raffle prizes are local businesses – they are often more than happy to help out a good cause! We are able to provide you with a letter of authorisation to say that your event has been registered with our Charity to help with this. To request one of these letters, please email your Charity contact. Unfortunately, we are unable to help our fundraisers source raffle prizes.