Submission of fundraising appeal

A fundraising appeal is the solicitation or receipt of money or property from the public, any class of the public, or members of a society, in association with a representation that all or part of the proceeds will be applied for:

• charitable, benevolent or philanthropic purposes; or

• any specific purpose, whether or not charitable, benevolent or philanthropic.

A fundraising appeal does not include the collection of membership fees from members of the society. “Proceeds” refers to all money or other property given in response to the fundraising appeal.

What you should know

Societies may raise funds from their members or the public for any purpose, subject to obtaining approval from the relevant authorities where required. For information on fundraising permits, please contact the Licensing Division of the Singapore Police Force at 6835 0000 for a licence under the House to House and Street Collections Act 1947 or the Charities Unit at 6337 6597 if your society is an Institution of Public Character (IPC) or registered charity.

Under Regulation 6 of the Societies Regulations, the President, Secretary and Treasurer, or other officers holding analogous positions, must ensure that proper accounts and other records of the fundraising appeal are kept, and that all payments out of the proceeds are correctly made and properly authorised.

Within 60 days after the fundraising appeal ends, the society must submit via the Fund-Raising Appeal e-Service, an audited Statement of Accounts for the appeal, comprising an Income and Expenditure Statement and a Balance Sheet, audited by the society’s auditor.

What information you need

The society must maintain proper books of account relating to the fundraising appeal, prepared and kept on a basis consistent with generally accepted accounting principles, standards and practices.

The society must also maintain records of:

a)       the name of each person authorised to participate in the fundraising appeal;

b)      the dates on which the fundraising appeal commenced and concluded;

c)       the gross proceeds received in response to the fundraising appeal;

d)      the net proceeds applied to the purpose for which the fundraising appeal was conducted and the means by which they were distributed; and

e)      the items of expenditure disbursed from the proceeds.

Submit the Statement of Accounts relating to the fundraising appeal online via ROS eServices ↗ (opens in new tab).

The President, Secretary and Treasurer are required to verify and submit the fundraising appeal online.

The Statement of Accounts and any supporting documents should be attached in .docx or .pdf format. The file size of each attachment must not exceed 5MB.

Submission of Fundraising Appeal [PDF, 1.3 MB] ↗ (opens in new tab)

What to expect

Upon receipt of the fundraising appeal submission, the Registry of Societies will process the submission and, where necessary, seek further clarification from the society.

Applicants can log in to our e-services ↗ (opens in new tab) to check on the status of their application.