                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

DEFINITIONS (§ 57-48)

As used in this chapter, unless the context requires a different meaning:
		&#8220;Board&#8221; means the Board of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
		&#8220;Charitable organization&#8221; means any person that is or holds itself
out to be organized or operated for any charitable purpose, or any person that
solicits or obtains contributions solicited from the public. &#8220;Charitable
organization&#8221; does not include (i) any church or convention or association
of churches, primarily operated for nonsecular purposes and no part of the net
income of which inures to the direct benefit of any individual; (ii) any
political party as defined in § 24.2-101 or any political campaign committee or
political action committee or other political committee required by state or
federal law to file a report or statement of contributions and expenditures; or
(iii) any authorized individual who solicits, by authority of such organization,
solely on behalf of a registered or exempt charitable organization or on behalf
of an organization excluded from the definition of charitable organization.
		&#8220;Charitable purpose&#8221; means any charitable, benevolent, humane,
philanthropic, patriotic, or eleemosynary purpose and the purposes of
influencing legislation or influencing the actions of any public official or
instigating, prosecuting, or intervening in litigation.
		&#8220;Charitable sales promotion&#8221; means advertised sales that feature
the names of both the commercial co-venturer and the charitable or civic
organization and that state that the purchase or use of the goods, services,
entertainment, or any other thing of value that the commercial co-venturer
normally sells will benefit the charitable or civic organization or its
purposes. To qualify as a charitable sales promotion, the consumer must pay the
same price for the thing of value as the commercial co-venturer usually charges
without the charitable sales promotion and the consumer retains the thing of
value.
		&#8220;Civic organization&#8221; means any local service club, veterans post,
fraternal society or association, volunteer fire or rescue group, or local civic
league or association of 10 or more persons not organized for profit but
operated exclusively for educational or charitable purposes as defined in this
section, including the promotion of community welfare, and the net earnings of
which are devoted exclusively to charitable, educational, recreational, or
social welfare purposes.
		&#8220;Commercial co-venturer&#8221; means any person who (i) is organized for
profit, (ii) is regularly and primarily engaged in trade or commerce, other than
in connection with soliciting for charitable or civic organizations or
charitable purposes, and (iii) conducts an advertised charitable sales promotion
for a specified limited period of time.
		&#8220;Commissioner&#8221; means the Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer
Services or a member of his staff to whom he may delegate his duties under this
chapter.
		&#8220;Contribution&#8221; means any gift, bequest, devise, or other grant of
any money, credit, financial assistance, or property of any kind or value,
including the promise to contribute, except payments by the membership of an
organization for membership fees, dues, fines, or assessments, or for services
rendered to individual members, and except money, credit, financial assistance,
or property received from any governmental authority. &#8220;Contribution&#8221;
does not include any donation of blood or any gift made pursuant to Article 2
(§ 32.1-291.1 et seq.) of Chapter 8 of Title 32.1.
		&#8220;Department&#8221; means the Department of Agriculture and Consumer
Services.
		&#8220;Federated fund-raising organization&#8221; means any federation of
independent charitable organizations that have voluntarily joined together,
including but not limited to a United Fund or Community Chest, for purposes of
raising and distributing money for and among themselves and where membership
does not confer operating authority and control of the individual agencies upon
the federated group organization.
		&#8220;File with the Commissioner&#8221; means depositing the originals of the
documents required to be filed, along with the payment of the appropriate fee
and all supporting documents with the Department or submitting the required
documents and any appropriate attachments and fees by utilizing an online filing
system approved by the Commissioner.
		&#8220;Fund-raising expenses&#8221; means the expenses of all activities that
constitute or are an integral and inseparable part of a solicitation.
		&#8220;Membership&#8221; means those persons to whom, for payment of fees,
dues, assessments, etc., an organization provides services and confers a bona
fide right, privilege, professional standing, honor, or other direct benefit, in
addition to the right to vote, elect officers, or hold offices.
&#8220;Membership&#8221; does not include those persons who are granted a
membership upon making a contribution as the result of solicitation.
		&#8220;Parent organization&#8221; means that part of a charitable organization
that coordinates, supervises, or exercises control over policy, fund raising,
and expenditures or assists or advises one or more chapters, branches, or
affiliates.
		&#8220;Person&#8221; means any individual, organization, trust, foundation,
association, partnership, corporation, society, or other group or combination
acting as a unit.
		&#8220;Professional fund-raising counsel&#8221; means any person who for a
flat fixed fee under a written agreement plans, conducts, manages, carries on,
advises, or acts as a consultant, whether directly or indirectly, in connection
with soliciting contributions for, or on behalf of, any charitable or civic
organization, but who actually solicits no contributions as a part of such
services. A bona fide salaried officer or employee of a registered or exempt
charitable organization or the bona fide salaried officer or employee of a
registered parent organization shall not be deemed to be a professional
fund-raising counsel.
		&#8220;Professional solicitor&#8221; means any person who, for a financial or
other consideration, solicits contributions for, or on behalf of, a charitable
or civic organization, whether such solicitation is performed personally or
through his agents, servants, or employees or through agents, servants, or
employees who are specially employed by or for a charitable or civic
organization and are engaged in the solicitation of contributions under the
direction of such person or any person who, for a financial or other
consideration, plans, conducts, manages, carries on, advises, or acts as a
consultant to a charitable or civic organization in connection with the
solicitation of contributions but does not qualify as a professional
fund-raising counsel. A bona fide salaried officer or employee of a registered
or exempt charitable organization or a bona fide salaried officer or employee of
a registered parent organization shall not be deemed to be a professional
solicitor.
		&#8220;Sale,&#8221; &#8220;sell,&#8221; and &#8220;sold&#8221; mean the
transfer of any property or the rendition of any service to any person in
exchange for consideration, including any purported contribution without which
such property would not have been transferred or such services would not have
been rendered.
		&#8220;Solicit&#8221; and &#8220;solicitation&#8221; mean the request or
appeal, directly or indirectly, for any contribution on the plea or
representation that such contribution will be used for a charitable purpose,
including, without limitation, the following methods of requesting such
contribution:

1. Any oral or written request;

2. Any announcement to the press, over the radio or television, by telephone or
telegraph, or by email concerning an appeal or campaign to which the public is
requested to make a contribution for any charitable purpose connected therewith;

3. The distribution, circulation, posting, or publishing of any handbill,
written advertisement, or other publication that directly or by implication
seeks to obtain public support; or

4. The sale of, offer, or attempt to sell, any advertisement, advertising space,
subscription, ticket, or any service or tangible item in connection with which
any appeal is made for any charitable purpose or where the name of any
charitable or civic organization is used or referred to in any such appeal as an
inducement or reason for making any such sale, or when or where in connection
with any such sale, any statement is made that the whole or any part of the
proceeds from any such sale will be donated to any charitable purpose.
			&#8220;Solicitation,&#8221; as defined in this section, shall be deemed to
occur when the request is made, at the place the request is received, whether or
not the person making the same actually receives any contribution.
			&#8220;Terrorists and terrorist organizations&#8221; means any person,
organization, group, or conspiracy who assists or has assisted terrorist
organizations, as provided in 18 U.S.C. &#xA7; 2339B, or who commits or attempts
to commit acts of terrorism, as defined in &#xA7; 18.2-46.4.

HISTORY: 1974, c. 574; 1979, cc. 124, 595, 598; 1983, c. 374; 1984, c. 268;
1988, c. 322; 1990, c. 711; 1996, c. 461; 2003, cc. 576, 977, 1009; 2005, c.
329; 2007, cc. 92, 907; 2013, c. 24; 2021, Sp. Sess. I, c. 465; 2023, c. 289.