Fundraising terms that match how your organisation actually raises money

The legal risk usually comes from assumptions about what a donation means, especially when an appeal is linked to a project, event or stated purpose. Supporters may expect funds to be used in a particular way, refunded in certain circumstances, or handled consistently across online and offline channels. Clear fundraising terms help explain the basis on which donations are accepted, any limits around refunds, and how campaign changes are dealt with. That is particularly important where your organisation runs public appeals, recurring giving options or event-based fundraising with different messaging across platforms.

The document often covers how donations are made, whether donations are for general purposes or a named appeal, when a refund request may be considered, what happens if a campaign is changed or withdrawn, and how supporter information is handled alongside your other policies. Depending on your setup, the terms may also address recurring donations, third-party fundraising pages, event cancellations, minimum fundraising commitments, or how goods, tickets or sponsorship elements interact with the donation process. The exact wording depends on how your organisation actually raises funds and communicates with donors.

Important details include whether you fundraise through your website, social media, third-party platforms, in-person events or community campaigns, and whether donations are unrestricted or tied to a specific appeal. We also need to understand if supporters receive anything in return, such as event entry, merchandise or acknowledgements, because that can change how the terms should read. If volunteers or partner organisations collect funds on your behalf, that can also affect the wording. The more closely the terms reflect your real fundraising flow, the more useful they are in practice.

A generic template may cover broad concepts, but it often misses the practical points that create confusion in real campaigns. For example, a template may not deal properly with restricted-purpose appeals, peer-to-peer fundraising, recurring donations, or what happens if an event is postponed and part of the payment is not purely a donation. It may also use language that does not match your website journey or supporter communications. A tailored document is usually more helpful where your organisation has several fundraising channels or wants the terms to line up with its actual campaign wording and processes.

Not automatically. This service centres on fundraising terms and conditions. If your donation flow also needs a separate privacy statement, donor terms bundle, constitution update or broader governance advice, that would usually be handled as additional work. We can flag where those related documents may be worth considering, especially if your fundraising process collects personal information in several ways or involves committee approvals and internal policies. Ongoing representation is also outside the fixed-fee unless it is included in the agreed scope, so the service stays focused on the fundraising terms themselves.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Fundraising Terms And Conditions service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.