Face to Face fundraising

All of our fundraisers wear:

• A blue (and on occasion black) t-shirt, jacket or tabard, with Guide Dogs’ logo

• An ID badge with the fundraiser’s name, photo and ID number

If you are unsure as to whether someone claiming to represent Guide Dogs is an authorised fundraiser you can contact our Supporter Care Team on 0800 953 0113 from Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm.  Outside of these hours the fundraiser themselves will be able to provide you with a number you can call to check.

Door-to-door (D2D) fundraising

Door-to-door fundraising is where our fundraisers call at homes across the UK, knocking on doors to speak with people about our work and asking them to support us by signing up to Sponsor a Puppy or Lucky Lottery.

Our door teams work regionally across the UK.

Private sites

Private site fundraising is where our teams visit a variety of locations such as train stations, shopping centres, supermarkets, large public events and festivals. These teams setup a Guide Dogs stand to work from and engage with people to provide them with information about Guide Dogs and to sign up supporters to Sponsor a Puppy and Lucky Lottery.

Street Fundraising

Our street fundraisers work in teams on town centre high streets throughout the UK, talking to members of the public to give them information about Guide Dogs’ work and asking them to sign up to support us.

Our teams of fundraisers are highly trained and enthusiastic individuals. They are dedicated to raising money and building awareness of our commitment to making people who are blind or partially sighted more mobile.

We are committed to ensuring that our fundraisers offer a positive experience to the public when interacting with them, and are friendly, professional and helpful.

We have an in-house team of fundraisers and also work with agencies to provide additional fundraising.

We are members of the Institute of Fundraising (IoF), Fundraising Regulator, and the Fundraising Standards Board. All of our fundraisers follow the code of conduct set out by the IoF. We also utilise mystery shoppers and carry out quality calling to make sure that all of our fundraisers meet the high standards that we expect from them every day.

Guide Dogs has a team of in-house fundraisers and also chooses to work with trusted partner agencies to help deliver professional ethical fundraising on our behalf. All fundraisers working on these teams are coached by Guide Dogs to ensure they are informed about our campaigns and provide an excellent quality of service in line with our own standards.

Charity Link are a fundraising specialist who have been operating for over 20 years. They have over 250 fundraising staff working in conjunction with a few chosen charities. Charity Link are our key partner for fundraising services at national events and within private sites. They have been working with us since 2000 and in that time have helped sign up hundreds of thousands of supporters to Sponsor a Puppy.

Appco Group Support (AGS) are one of the longest-running and most experienced face-to-face donor recruitment agencies in the world, with a network of more than 4,000 fundraisers across 24 countries. AGS have been selected to partner with us and provide professional door to door fundraising services.

All of our agencies are active members of the Institute of Fundraising. We have chosen to partner with them because we know that they comply with all relevant laws and codes of practice.