{
  "id": "BRD-059",
  "slug": "brd-059",
  "title": "A unified fundraising short code needs five years of operating history",
  "statement": "A charity seeking a single unified short code for fundraising must demonstrate at least five years of operation.",
  "rationale": "Unified fundraising codes are shared infrastructure with a high abuse value — a fraudulent appeal on a recognised code damages every charity on it — so the entry bar is time in operation rather than paperwork. Newer charities can still message; what they cannot do is join the unified code, and planning a campaign around one is the expensive way to discover that.",
  "layer": "BRAND",
  "layerSlug": "brand",
  "object": "charity operating history",
  "severity": "MEDIUM",
  "detectability": [
    "EXTERNAL_DATA"
  ],
  "failureClass": "TERMINAL_EXTERNAL",
  "authorities": [
    "CTIA"
  ],
  "applicability": {
    "useCases": [
      "CHARITY"
    ]
  },
  "applicabilityText": "Applies when the use case is CHARITY.",
  "universal": false,
  "remediation": "Plan the campaign on a 10DLC number or a dedicated short code where the organisation is younger than five years. Revisit the unified code once the operating history is there; nothing about the registration changes in the meantime.",
  "notes": "A short-code path requirement rather than a 10DLC one, recorded here because charities plan across both. The user has to check their own incorporation date against the five-year bar before committing to a unified-code campaign — no part of the 10DLC registration will tell them.",
  "phase": "approval",
  "automated": false,
  "attestation": {
    "question": "Has this organisation been operating for at least five years, counting from its incorporation date?",
    "howToCheck": [
      "Find the incorporation or determination date on the organisation's founding documents.",
      "Under five years, plan the campaign on a 10DLC number or a dedicated short code and revisit the unified fundraising code later — nothing about the registration changes in the meantime."
    ],
    "failureLooksLike": "A four-year-old charity builds its whole appeal around a unified short code, and finds out at the point of application that the bar is time in operation and there is no paperwork that shortens it."
  },
  "url": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/brand/brd-059/",
  "markdown": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/brand/brd-059.md",
  "registry": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/",
  "updated": "2026-07-25",
  "licence": "CC BY 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}