Version: 2026-07-12 draft.
Article I. EducateONE Organizational Policies
Chapter 12. Finance, Accounting, Internal Controls, Banking, and Gifts
EducateONE Organizational Policy § 12.8.00. Fundraising and Charitable Solicitation Compliance Policy.
(a) Purpose.
(1) In order to advance EducateONE’s charitable, educational, and institutional purposes through lawful fundraising, this policy establishes standards for fundraising, charitable solicitation, donor communications, fundraising oversight, third-party fundraising activity, fundraising compensation, donor information, and related compliance.
(2) This policy is intended to help ensure that fundraising and solicitation activities conducted for or on behalf of EducateONE are accurate, truthful, lawful, mission-consistent, and consistent with EducateONE’s tax-exempt and charitable purposes.
(3) This policy is intended to supplement and does not replace any applicable federal, state, or local charitable-solicitation, fundraising, tax-exempt, consumer-protection, donor-restriction, registration, reporting, contract, or professional-fundraiser requirement.
(b) Scope.
(1) This policy applies to fundraising and charitable-solicitation activity conducted by EducateONE and any controlled EducateONE institution, school, program, service, activity, or operation.
(2) This policy applies to fundraising and solicitation activity conducted by directors, officers, employees, contractors, volunteers, agents, professional fundraisers, fundraising counsel, commercial co-venturers, vendors, consultants, or other persons acting for or on behalf of EducateONE.
(3) For purposes of this policy, “fundraising” or “solicitation” means any request, appeal, campaign, event, communication, publication, online activity, grant request, sponsorship request, donor communication, or other effort to obtain charitable contributions, donations, grants, gifts, pledges, sponsorships, goods, services, or other support for EducateONE or its controlled institutions, programs, services, activities, or operations.
(c) Fundraising Oversight.
(1) The Executive Director or designee shall supervise, coordinate, and direct fundraising activity conducted for or on behalf of EducateONE.
(2) The Board of Directors or a committee designated by the Board may periodically review fundraising activity, charitable-solicitation practices, fundraising compliance, donor restrictions, professional fundraising arrangements, and related matters.
(3) EducateONE may establish procedures, forms, review processes, donor records, campaign approvals, fundraising controls, and other administrative practices to implement this policy.
(d) Compliance With Law.
(1) Fundraising and solicitation activities conducted for or on behalf of EducateONE shall comply with applicable federal, state, and local legal requirements.
(2) EducateONE shall comply with charitable-solicitation registration, exemption, notice, reporting, contract, professional-fundraiser, commercial co-venture, donor-acknowledgment, substantiation, tax-exempt, and other fundraising requirements when such requirements apply.
(3) EducateONE shall not knowingly authorize, conduct, or continue fundraising or solicitation activity in a jurisdiction, format, campaign, event, or arrangement when EducateONE knows that the activity is prohibited, materially misleading, unauthorized, or legally noncompliant.
(4) If a fundraising activity involves a state registration, charitable-solicitation filing, professional-fundraiser registration, fundraising counsel registration, commercial co-venture requirement, raffle or gaming requirement, event permit, tax filing, or other legal requirement, EducateONE shall address the requirement before proceeding or continuing the activity.
(e) Accuracy and Truthfulness.
(1) Fundraising and solicitation materials shall be truthful, accurate, and not materially misleading.
(2) EducateONE shall not knowingly use fundraising or solicitation materials that contain:
(A) false statements;
(B) materially misleading statements;
(C) material omissions;
(D) deceptive descriptions of EducateONE, its institutions, programs, services, activities, status, approvals, accreditation, outcomes, finances, donor restrictions, or use of funds;
(E) exaggerated or unsupported claims;
(F) misleading photographs, images, testimonials, stories, examples, statistics, or descriptions; or
(G) unrealistic or misleading expectations about what a donor’s contribution will accomplish.
(3) Fundraising materials should describe the purpose, intended use, restriction, campaign, program, institution, or activity supported by a contribution with reasonable accuracy under the circumstances.
(4) The Executive Director or designee may require review of fundraising or solicitation materials before publication, distribution, posting, transmission, or use.
(f) Donor Intent and Restricted Gifts.
(1) EducateONE shall use donor-restricted contributions consistently with lawful donor restrictions accepted by EducateONE.
(2) EducateONE shall not accept a donor restriction that is unlawful, impossible to administer, inconsistent with EducateONE’s charitable or educational purposes, inconsistent with tax-exempt requirements, or inconsistent with a separate EducateONE policy.
(3) EducateONE shall retain discretion and control over charitable funds and shall not accept or administer a contribution in a manner that results in private inurement, impermissible private benefit, donor control over a specific individual recipient, unlawful discrimination, or another practice that would jeopardize EducateONE’s charitable, educational, or tax-exempt purposes.
(4) Contributions subject to donor restrictions shall be recorded and administered in a manner reasonably sufficient to identify and honor the accepted restriction.
(g) Third-Party Fundraising.
(1) No unaffiliated third party may solicit contributions on behalf of EducateONE without written authorization from the Executive Director or designee.
(2) EducateONE may require any third party authorized to solicit contributions for or on behalf of EducateONE to enter into a written agreement.
(3) A third-party fundraising agreement may address, as applicable:
(A) scope of authority;
(B) campaign purpose;
(C) approved representations;
(D) custody and transfer of funds;
(E) donor information;
(F) expenses and compensation;
(G) registration, licensing, and filing responsibilities;
(H) records and reporting;
(I) use of EducateONE’s name, marks, materials, or public identity;
(J) confidentiality;
(K) donor restrictions;
(L) termination; and
(M) any other lawful condition EducateONE determines appropriate.
(4) EducateONE may deny, suspend, revoke, limit, or condition any authorization for third-party fundraising.
(h) Fundraising Compensation.
(1) EducateONE shall not pay fundraising compensation that is unreasonable, excessive, or inconsistent with EducateONE’s charitable purposes.
(2) Any fundraising compensation based in whole or in part on amounts raised must be approved in writing and structured to avoid private inurement, impermissible private benefit, or unreasonable compensation.
(3) Fundraising compensation arrangements may be reviewed under EducateONE’s conflict-of-interest, executive-compensation, financial-control, contract, and records-retention policies when applicable.
(4) Nothing in this policy requires EducateONE to approve any commission-based, percentage-based, bonus-based, incentive-based, or contingent fundraising compensation arrangement.
(i) Donor Information and Privacy.
(1) EducateONE shall protect donor information and shall not sell or trade donor names or contact information, except as required by law, authorized by the donor, or reasonably necessary for lawful fundraising, donation processing, accounting, reporting, legal compliance, or institutional operations.
(2) EducateONE may use donor information for lawful charitable, educational, fundraising, donor-relations, accounting, reporting, compliance, and institutional purposes.
(3) EducateONE may disclose donor information when disclosure is required by law, required by a filing or reporting obligation, authorized by the donor, necessary to process or administer a contribution, necessary to maintain records, necessary to obtain professional services, or otherwise lawful and consistent with this policy.
(4) EducateONE shall not knowingly use donor information in a manner that is materially misleading, unlawful, or inconsistent with a donor restriction accepted by EducateONE.
(j) Donor Pressure and Donor Hardship.
(1) Fundraising activity conducted for or on behalf of EducateONE shall not knowingly use coercion, deception, harassment, intimidation, or materially misleading pressure to obtain contributions.
(2) EducateONE shall not knowingly solicit or accept a contribution under circumstances where EducateONE knows that acceptance of the contribution would impose an unreasonable hardship on the donor.
(3) Nothing in this subdivision requires EducateONE to investigate a donor’s personal finances unless facts known to EducateONE indicate that a contribution may involve coercion, incapacity, exploitation, fraud, undue influence, or other material concern.
(k) Use of Name, Marks, and Identity.
(1) EducateONE’s name, marks, branding, public identity, institutional names, program names, school names, logos, materials, donor communications, solicitation materials, and public representations may be used for fundraising only as authorized by EducateONE.
(2) A person may not represent that the person is fundraising for or on behalf of EducateONE unless EducateONE has authorized the representation.
(3) EducateONE may require correction, withdrawal, removal, or discontinuation of any unauthorized, inaccurate, misleading, or noncompliant fundraising representation.
(l) Records.
(1) EducateONE shall maintain fundraising and solicitation records reasonably sufficient to document compliance with this policy and any applicable law, filing requirement, donor restriction, contract, registration, professional-fundraiser requirement, accounting requirement, tax requirement, or reporting requirement.
(2) Fundraising records may include, as applicable:
(A) campaign materials;
(B) solicitation materials;
(C) donor restrictions;
(D) donor acknowledgments;
(E) contribution records;
(F) registration and exemption filings;
(G) professional fundraising agreements;
(H) commercial co-venture agreements;
(I) grant agreements;
(J) sponsorship agreements;
(K) fundraising event records;
(L) records of funds received and expenses paid;
(M) records of third-party authorization;
(N) records of fundraising compensation approval; and
(O) related compliance records.
(3) Records shall be maintained in accordance with EducateONE’s records-retention policy and any applicable law, contract, grant term, donor restriction, filing requirement, or other binding obligation.
(m) Relationship to Other Policies.
(1) This policy supplements and does not replace EducateONE’s policies concerning financial management, internal controls, conflicts of interest, executive compensation, records retention, public inspection, student assistance, nondiscrimination, international restricted-party compliance, contracts, donor-restricted gifts, or other applicable matters.
(2) If another EducateONE policy imposes a stricter requirement for a specific fundraising activity, donor restriction, contribution, contract, transaction, person, campaign, school, program, institution, or jurisdiction, EducateONE shall comply with the stricter requirement for that specific matter.
(n) Interpretation.
(1) This policy shall be interpreted to preserve EducateONE’s lawful ability to fundraise creatively, effectively, and flexibly while maintaining compliance with charitable-solicitation, donor-protection, tax-exempt, private-benefit, financial-control, donor-restriction, and recordkeeping requirements.
(2) Nothing in this policy shall be interpreted to prohibit EducateONE from conducting any lawful fundraising, solicitation, donor-relations, grant-seeking, sponsorship, event, campaign, online giving, or charitable-development activity that is consistent with EducateONE’s charitable and educational purposes.
(3) If any provision of this policy is determined to be inconsistent with applicable law, the provision shall be interpreted or limited to the extent necessary to comply with law while preserving the maximum lawful discretion of EducateONE.
Source Note
This policy is adapted from Public Counsel’s Community Development Project, Form 990 Series — Fundraising Policy and Memorandum, including its sample fundraising policy for California nonprofits. The policy has been modified for EducateONE’s organizational structure, fundraising oversight model, donor-information approach, compensation flexibility, policy numbering, source-note placement, and drafting style.
References
Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3).
Internal Revenue Code section 4958.
Internal Revenue Code section 6115.
Internal Revenue Code section 170(f)(8).
California Government Code sections 12580 et seq.
California Business and Professions Code sections 17510 et seq.
California Code of Regulations, title 11, sections 300 et seq.
IRS Form 990, Part VI, Section B.
IRS Form 990, Schedule G.
EducateONE Organizational Policy § 8.1.00. Conflict of Interest Policy.
EducateONE Organizational Policy § 9.1.00. Executive Compensation.
EducateONE Organizational Policy § 11.6.00. Records Retention and Destruction.
EducateONE Organizational Policy § 12.1.00. Financial Management and Controls.
EducateONE Organizational Policy § 12.6.00. International Restricted-Party and Cross-Border Compliance Policy.
EducateONE Organizational Guideline § 15.4.01. Policy Layout Standard and Style Guide.
