What is fundraising counsel registration?

Fundraising counsel registration is the lighter of the two paid-fundraiser categories. It applies to consultants who plan, manage, advise on, or produce a charity's fundraising but do not solicit donors themselves and never take custody of contributions. Fewer states require it than require professional solicitor registration, and where it exists the filing is usually simpler: often an application, a fee, and copies of contracts, with no bond in many states.

The line between counsel and solicitor

Two facts decide the category in most states. Does the consultant ask donors for money directly? Does the consultant receive, hold, or control the funds? If both answers are no, the work is typically fundraising counsel. If either answer is yes, the firm is usually a professional solicitor and faces the heavier requirements, including a bond and campaign financial reporting.

Typical counsel work includes campaign strategy, feasibility studies, case statement writing, direct mail copy and design, donor research and data analysis, capital campaign management, and training a charity's own staff and volunteers to make the ask. The consultant may sit in the room while a gift officer solicits a major donor and still be counsel, as long as the charity's own person makes the request and the gift goes to the charity.

Where the classification quietly changes

Consultants slide into solicitor territory more often than they expect. A caging service that receives reply envelopes, a firm whose merchant account processes online gifts before remitting them, an agency that sends appeals over its own signature, or a consultant who personally calls lapsed donors to renew them has crossed at least one of the two lines. Some states also treat control over the charity's bank account or check-signing authority as custody, even if the money never leaves the charity's name. A few states apply the solicitor rules to anyone compensated by a percentage of funds raised, which is one reason percentage-based fundraising compensation is discouraged by professional ethics codes and treated with suspicion by regulators.

What filing looks like

In states that register fundraising counsel, expect an annual application with information about the firm and its principals, a filing fee that varies by state, and filing of each written contract with a charity, sometimes before work begins. A minority of states add a bond or require notice before a campaign starts. Because the requirements are uneven, a consulting firm serving clients nationally usually maintains a short list of states where it registers rather than a fifty-state portfolio.

• Confirm the category state by state before signing, using the two-question test.
• Put the no-solicitation and no-custody facts in the contract so the classification is documented.
• File contracts where the state requires it, and calendar the annual renewal.
• Re-check the analysis whenever the scope of work changes mid-engagement.

The charity's side of the file

A charity hiring counsel should still confirm registration where it is required, keep the signed contract, and remember that its own charitable solicitation registration is unaffected by the consultant's status. The charity remains the party soliciting, so its registrations in donor states must be current before the campaign mails or launches. Our charitable registration requirements by state guides map those obligations, and our nonprofit licensing team registers both charities and their fundraising vendors in the states where each is required to file.