Letter confirming charity cake bake rules

Our letter sets out a series of rules to be complied with where you’ve agreed to let an employee host a cake sale day at work to raise money for a nominated charity. Make sure you’re clear about what your requirements are regarding promoting the event, the arrangements on the day itself and collecting money.

Fundraising opportunity

Thanks to the popularity of various TV shows, baking has never been so fashionable and charities have seized on this by promoting charity cake sales as a good way of fundraising. So it’s probably only a matter of time before an employee asks if they can host a charity cake sale day at work. The concept of the day is simple: (1) the employee organises and promotes their day, (2) they bake an assortment of cakes at their own cost (usually with the help of friends, family, etc.), (3) they host their day at work and ask staff for a donation to their nominated charity in return for a slice of cake, and (4) all proceeds raised are paid to the nominated charity. If you’re willing to agree to a charity cake sale day, you do need to set some clear guidelines for the employee to ensure that things run smoothly and it doesn’t interfere with work. So you can use our Letter Confirming Charity Cake Bake Rules for this.

Rules of the day

Normally, you probably wouldn’t let an employee sell goods to other staff on your premises (and that’s the position in our Collections, Sponsorship and Selling of Goods Policy), but you may occasionally be prepared to make an exception where it’s to raise money for charity. Our letter lays down various rules for the employee to comply with, covering:

• displaying advertising posters and sending promotion e-mails
• the practical set-up arrangements on the day (where the cakes are to be displayed, hygiene, marking what each cake is and clearing up afterwards)
• not charging for the cakes, i.e. only asking employees to make a voluntary donation to the nominated charity in return for a cake, and not putting them under any pressure to join in
• donating all monies collected to the nominated charity
• carrying out any related activities outside working hours and not allowing the day to disrupt job duties.