The Policy of The UK Cards Association on Charitable Donations
Sponsorship of the Internet Watch Foundation
The UK Cards Association is proud to be an Associate Member of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF). (Associate members of the IWF are companies that support the objectives of the IWF and the IWF Code of Practice but do not host online content, for example hardware manufactures or software companies).
The IWF was established in 1996 by the UK internet industry to provide the UK internet ‘Hotline’ for the public and IT professionals to report potentially illegal online content within its remit and to be the 'notice and take-down' body for this content.
The IWF’s mission and vision are as follows:
Mission
· To work in partnership with internet service providers, telecommunication companies, mobile operators, software providers, the police, Government and the public to minimise the availability of online illegal content, particularly child sexual abuse images.
Vision
· Combating Child Sexual Abuse Images Online
The IWF works in partnership with the online industry, law enforcement, government, the education sector, charities, international partners and the public to minimise the availability of this content, specifically, child sexual abuse content hosted anywhere in the world and criminally obscene and incitement to racial hatred content hosted in the UK.
The IWF is an independent self-regulatory body, funded by the EU and the wider online industry, including internet service providers, mobile operators and manufacturers, content service providers, filtering companies, search providers, trade associations and the financial sector as well as other organisations that give their support for corporate social responsibility reasons.
The IWF strives to create continued awareness of its role and purpose and aims to foster trust and reassurance in the internet for current and future users. The IWF’s self-regulatory partnership approach is widely recognised as a model of good practice in combating the abuse of technology for the dissemination of illegal content.
More information on the IWF and its work can be found at:
The IWF is an incorporated charity.
Interchange Waiver on Charitable Donations
The credit card industry plays its part supporting major cross-charity or disaster fundraising appeals through the interchange waiver scheme.
Individual card companies are involved in supporting a broad range of charities worldwide and will often make donations or special arrangements for their own chosen charities. The card industry as a whole shows its support for charitable causes by waiving interchange fees for cross-charity and disaster or emergency appeals.
Interchange is a fee paid by an acquirer (a bank that provides services to merchants) to a credit card issuer for each transaction made. The card industry seeks to support, through the waiving of interchange fees, multi-charity appeals of a non-political nature that aim to provide humanitarian assistance on a mass scale in respect of specific disasters and crises in areas where infrastructure and economics inhibit rebuilding and the resumption of normal daily operations.
For many years the UK payments industry has waived fees for appeals which are designated as major international emergencies by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) such as the December 2004 South East Asian tsunami, or are cross-charity intensive fundraising events like Red Nose Day or Children in Need. This means that the industry is able to help the response to humanitarian disasters quickly and effectively. The industry does not typically waive fees for planned one-off events from single-interest charities but prefers to work with wider appeals. To waive charges for all charitable giving in the UK would, sadly, not be viable commercially and that is why the industry has to be able to choose fairly where this support goes. The industry believes the criteria of urgent and extreme humanitarian need and being even-handed are good guides in making that difficult decision.
