At Colchester & Ipswich Hospitals Charity, we have developed our fundraising activity with our donors, patients and relatives in mind. Thanks to our dedicated, committed and loyal supporters, the charity is able to fund additional items of equipment, enhance facilities and conduct research to improve the patient experience and level of care already offered by East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust.  We promise to make the best use of each donation and we work hard to ensure that exceptional standards of supporter care are delivered to everyone who is kind enough to consider supporting us.  You can be reassured that any donation, whatever its size and whether from patients, relatives or our local community is warmly appreciated.
Thank you.

When you support Colchester & Ipswich Hospitals Charity we promise to:

• Acknowledge your donation promptly and thank you within five working days (usually sooner).  We will always be incredibly grateful for your kind support and may provide information and insight about our work
• Use your donation wisely and responsibly and wherever practical respect your wishes.  If you would like to allocate your donation to a particular area of our work we will respect your wishes, and where this is not possible, we will advise you of this and proceed as you request
• Keep our administration costs to a minimum and provide clear, public financial reports in our Annual Review
• Maximise your donation through Gift Aid, where appropriate
• Every donation we receive matters to us, regardless of how big or small it is

We respect and value you:

• Our supporters are the most valuable asset we have. After all, without you, we wouldn’t be able to continue our work
• We respect your opinions and the beliefs of all our supporters
• We are honest and transparent at all times. We admit it when we make mistakes and we put things right
• We deliver what we say we’re going to deliver
• We will keep you updated with our work (unless you request otherwise) and show the progress your donation is helping to achieve
• If you tell us us that you don’t want to be contacted in a certain way, we take notice and honour your request. Or we won’t communicate with you if that is your choice
• We will treat your personal information with respect and confidentiality in full accordance with your preferences and UK law

We value supporter relationships

• We engage with our supporters in an empathetic, understanding and fair way
• Our people take ownership of every contact they have with our supporters
• We see people as individuals, not numbers
• We treat every new person who contacts us as a valued supporter. As a result, we develop new and long-lasting relationships

When you contact us by phone, e-mail or letter we commit to:

• Respond to your enquiries in an open, honest, courteous and professional way
• Provide a response to your questions within two working days (usually sooner) or let you know when you can expect a response if we need to obtain further information or there is a delay
• Treat your information in a safe, secure, sensitive and confidential way
• We aim to exceed your expectations with the level of service we provide

We listen to your feedback

• We treat all communications, whether positive or negative, seriously and endeavour to ensure that we respond to you in a timely manner in accordance with the Fundraising Regulator’s Fundraising Code of Practice and our Complaints & Feedback Policy. We regularly use this feedback to improve and enhance our fundraising campaigns
• Our supporters’ opinions and feedback are always taken into account during the planning stage of any of our campaigns
• We are here to talk and to listen – we welcome and actively encourage feedback and make it clear how people can get in touch with us

We do not undertake any fundraising door-to-door activity or ask for direct debit donations on the street

Due to the nature of our charitable work and objectives, we do not send our fundraisers to knock on people’s doors to ask for donations and whilst we may have occasional bucket collections in public places we will not approach you on the street and ask for your bank details.

We do not sell personal data or share personal data beyond Colchester & Ipswich Hospitals Charity

We will never sell or pass on your name, address or other personal data to other organisations or charities for marketing purposes and will only contact you about products, services and events provided and/or offered by Colchester & Ipswich Hospitals Charity.

We do not ‘cold-call’ people for fundraising purposes. We only phone people with whom we have an existing relationship or who have already given us permission to contact them

‘Cold calling’ involves a company or business calling someone with whom they have had no prior contact. We only call people who have supported us in the past or told us they would like to hear from us. We will always check first that you’re happy to speak to us when we phone. And if you don’t want to be phoned, just let us know.

Every communication from us to members of the public will always include information on how to opt out from future communications

We only want to contact people who are happy to hear from us and we encourage people to get in touch if they’d like to change the way we communicate with them. If you tell us you don’t want to hear from us again, or want to hear from us less, we’ll respect that.

We always stop direct debits received from donors if a third party (e.g. family and friends) advise us that the donor is vulnerable in some way; if we are satisfied that such third party is entitled to act on the donor’s behalf

We know people’s circumstances change and will always cancel donations if one of our supporters is in a vulnerable situation. And if you’re ever worried about an older friend or relative receiving too much charity literature, don’t forget we have lots of information and advice to help, just give us a call on 0300 770 1369.

Every donation is banked in a ‘Colchester & Ipswich Hospitals Charity’ bank account and managed by the Trustees of East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust Charitable Fund.

We’re are an active member of the Association of NHS Charities and registered with the Charity Commission. We abide by the Fundraising Regulator’s Code of Fundraising Practice and Fundraising Promise. We will only work with professional fundraising organisations that meet our high standards. We will keep our fundraising practices under review and we will work with others with the aim of improving practice across the charity sector.