Commissioner of Charities to implement public fund-raising disclosure regime on 9 October 2023

27 September 2023

On 8 September 2023, the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (“MCCY”) and Commissioner of Charities (“COC”) announced that the COC will implement the Disclosure Regime for Public Fund-Raising Appeals (“Disclosure Regime”) on 9 October 2023.

Currently, a fund-raiser would require either a House to House and Street Collections licence from the Police or a fund-raising permit from the National Council of Social Service (“NCSS”), if the fund-raiser is a member of NCSS, to conduct public fund-raising appeals through visits from house to house or by soliciting in the streets. With the maturing of the charity landscape, MCCY had earlier announced that it will be making changes to the fund-raising regime to allow bona fide charities to fund-raise under more practical conditions.

Upon the Disclosure Regime coming into effect on 9 October 2023, collections for local registered or exempt charities under the Charities Act 1994 and collections for Fund-Raising for Foreign Charitable Purposes permit holders approved by the COC will only be regulated under the Charities Act. These entities (“charitable fund-raisers”) will be exempted from applying for a licence to conduct house to house and street collections but will instead be required to:

• Disclose details of their public fund-raising appeals on the Charity Portal at least seven working days before the commencement of the appeal. The public fund-raising appeal cannot commence until the disclosure is submitted on the Charity Portal; and
• Ensure that their collectors and fund-raisers carry clear identification, such as an official letter from the charitable fund-raiser, and maintain appropriate behaviour when conducting the appeal.

Subsidiary legislation

The following subsidiary legislation have been gazetted and come into operation on 9 October 2023. They are available on the Singapore Statutes Online website sso.agc.gov.sg:

• Charities (Fund-Raising Appeals for Local and Foreign Charitable Purposes) (Amendment No. 2) Regulations 2023
• Charities (Electronic Transactions Service) (Amendment) Regulations 2023
• House to House and Street Collections (Collections for Charities - Exemption) Notification 2023

Reference materials

The following materials are available on the Charity Portal website www.charities.gov.sg and MCCY website www.mccy.gov.sg:

• MCCY media release: Public Fund-Raising Disclosure Regime to be implemented from 9 October 2023
• COC media release: Implementation of the Public Fund-Raising Disclosure Regime on 9 October 2023
• FAQs on Disclosure Regime
• Official Letter Template A (Where third-party fund-raiser is engaged)
• Official Letter Template B (Where no third-party fund-raiser is engaged)