Colorado Secretary of State logo - cube with a C in it

Colorado Secretary
of State Jena Griswold
www.coloradosos.gov | www.sos.state.co.us

Colorado Secretary of State logo - cube with a C in it

Colorado Secretary
of State Jena Griswold
www.coloradosos.gov

Picture of Secretary of State Jena Griswold

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Colorado Secretary of State logo - cube with a C in it

Colorado
Secretary of State
Jena Griswold

×

Instructions for Registering a Professional Fundraising Consultant

Contents
Tab 1: Professional Fundraising Consultant Information
Tab 2: Office Locations
Tab 3: More Information about the Applicant
Tab 4: People – Administrative
Tab 5: About Your People
Tab 6: Reminders
Tab 7: Signature
Payment

Tab 1: Professional Fundraising Consultant Information

Enter the following information as indicated.

Name of professional fundraising consultant:

  • If the solicitor is an organization, enter the organization's name.
  • If the solicitor is an individual, enter the person's last, first and middle name.

Other Names Soliciting Under

  • Include trade names, "doing business as" (DBA) names, and any "also known as" names (such as acronyms, abbreviations, shortened names, etc.) that you will use when soliciting contributions.
  • If your organization plans to do business or solicit contributions under other names, enter a name and click on the "Add" button.
  • Click on the “Next” button

Tab 2: Office Locations

Principal Place of Business: Enter the street address of the principal place of business. No P.O. Boxes, UPS, Pak Mail, Mailboxes Etc. or any other mailbox services can be used.

Mailing address: Enter the mailing address if it is different than the primary address. Leave this field blank if you do not have a separate mailing address

Phone: Enter the professional fundraising consultant's telephone number.

Web address: (Optional) Enter the web address (URL) of the professional fundraising consultant's website.

Colorado Offices:

If the principal place of business is located outside of Colorado, enter the addresses and telephone numbers for any offices located in Colorado. Click on the link to "Add a Colorado office location,” enter the office location, and click on the “Save” button.

To edit a Colorado office location, click on the “edit” link next to the Colorado office address

To delete an office, click on the "Remove" link next to the Colorado office address

If you are finished adding offices, click on the "Next" button at the bottom of the page.

Tab 3: More Information about the Applicant

Type of organization: select the legal form of the entity, e.g. corporation, LLC, sole proprietor, etc. If the legal form of your organization is not listed, please select “Other” and describe. Please avoid use of terms such as “fundraising” or “consulting” in this section.

Place Formed: select the state where the organization was legally formed.

Date Formed: enter the date the organization was legally formed.

Contracts: indicate whether the applicant has a signed contract with each charity client, and if the contracts are in compliance with §6-16-104.3(2), C.R.S.

Contributions: indicate whether the applicant will ever have custody or control of contributions conducted on behalf of a charity in Colorado. This is intended to elicit information about why the applicant is registering (see §6-16-104.3(3), C.R.S.).

Compensation: indicate whether the applicant is charging their client(s) a flat rate or is being compensated on a percentage basis. If your compensation is based on a flat rate with some clients and a percentage of contributions with other clients, please note that in the text box. If the applicant acts as a professional fundraising consultant on a national or regional basis, please narrow your answer to solicitations conducted on behalf of charities in Colorado.

States registered or authorized in: Select any states in which the professional fundraising consultant is registered or authorized to act. To select multiple states, hold down the "Ctrl" (control) key while left-clicking on each state in the list. (On a Mac, the procedure is the same, but you will hold down the command/Apple key.)

Enforcement actions: indicate whether any state (including Colorado) has taken an official enforcement action to deny, suspend, or revoke its registration, or if any court or government authority has enjoined the applicant.

Description of Enforcement Action: briefly describe the nature of the enforcement action, e.g. signed Assurance Of Voluntary Compliance (AVC) with CA AG on 11/12/2016, registration revoked in NY on June 6, 2014, registration suspended in HI on 8/19/16 for six months.

Tab 4: People – Administrative

If the professional fundraising consultant is a partnership, corporation or LLC, you can add the partners, members, officers, directors, agents and employees to be covered by this registration.

Enter the name, title, role, and street address of each owner, officer, and executive (senior manager/official). If the professional fundraising consultant is an organization, add at least one person here. If the professional fundraising consultant is an individual, that person’s name will be pre-populated here.

Enter the name, title, phone number, and street address of the custodian of financial records.

Click on the "Next" button at the bottom of the page

Tab 5: About Your People

Indicate whether the applicant or any of its owners, officers, directors, trustees, or employees has, within the past five years, been convicted of, found guilty of, pled guilty or nolo contendere to, been adjudicated a juvenile violator of, or been incarcerated for any felony involving: fraud, theft, larceny, embezzlement, fraudulent conversion or misappropriation of property, or any crime arising from the conduct of a solicitation for a charitable organization or sponsor under the laws of Colorado, any other state, or of the United States. If applicable, complete and upload the Criminal History and Enforcement Actions form. For each person with such a history, choose the file name of the completed form, enter the name of the person to whom it applies, and click the “Attach file” button.

Indicate whether the applicant or any of its owners, officers, directors, trustees, or employees, has been enjoined from violating any law relating to a charitable solicitation. If applicable, complete and upload the Criminal History and Enforcement Actions form for each person who has been so enjoined and briefly describe the nature and date of the injunction, as well as the name of the court that issued the injunction. For each person with such a history, choose the file name of the completed form, enter the name of the person to whom it applies, and click the “Attach file” button.

Click on the "Next" button at the bottom of the page

Tab 6: Reminders

This tab provides a few important reminders:

  • Professional fundraising consultants must provide their charity client(s) with a copy of the signed contract before providing any material services under that contract (6-16-104.3(2), C.R.S.)
  • Provide the charity with a solicitation campaign financial report within 90 days after a solicitation campaign has been concluded, and on the anniversary of the commencement of a solicitation campaign lasting more than one year. Include gross proceeds and an itemization of all expenses or disbursements for any purpose. The Secretary of State is authorized to request a copy of the report (§6-16-104.3(9), C.R.S.).
  • If the applicant adds any partners, members, officers, directors, employees, agents, or contracts with any other person(s) to work under its direction, it must file an amendment to list these persons within five days after the date of employment or contractual arrangement.
  • If any other material information pertaining to the registration changes, file an amendment within 30 days of the change.

Click on the "Next" button at the bottom of the page

Tab 7: Signature

Select "Review draft filing" to review the entire registration for accuracy and completeness. When you have finished reviewing your registration, close that window.You will have another opportunity to review/print/save the draft filing after you sign the document.

Click on the “Sign” button

If you need to edit any information prior to paying the filing fee and filing the document, click on the “Remove Signature” button and go to the relevant tab

Click on the “Next” button, and review/save/print the signed document for your records

Payment

Click on the “Pay Now” button, and indicate whether you will pay by credit or debit card or via your prepaid account. We accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover cards.

If you are paying with a credit card:

  1. Choose the credit card type (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover) from the drop-down menu.
  2. Enter the credit card number
  3. Choose the expiration month from the drop-down menu
  4. Choose the expiration year from the drop-down menu
  5. Enter the security code on the card
  6. Enter the name of the cardholder exactly as it appears on the card
  7. Enter the billing address for the credit card, including street, city, state and ZIP code.
    Be sure to enter the billing address for the card, which may be different than the organization's address or the authorized officer's address.
  8. Click on "Pay now."

If you are paying with a prepaid account:

  1. Enter the prepaid account number.
  2. The second field, "Prepaid account customer reference data", is for your use; it is not a required field.
  3. Click on "Pay now" at the bottom of the page.

You will see a receipt page, which you can print for your records. You may also enter an email address to where we can email a copy of the receipt. Please note that receipts cannot be re-created. However, after a filing is approved, you will be able to see the filing fee, date filed, and document number in the time stamp on the approved document, which is displayed in the organization’s history.

Once payment is approved, the document is automatically routed to an “awaiting approval” queue, and program staff has up to ten days in which to examine the filing and determine if it satisfies all of the requirements.  Our office will notify you by email when the document is approved.

TIP: Documents that are neither paid nor approved will bear a “Draft copy” watermark. Documents that are paid, but awaiting approval by program staff will bear a “Pending” watermark. Approved documents will have an “E-Filed” logo at the top of the document, and the time stamp will display the date and time filed, document number, and amount paid.