Ethical Income Policy

1. The Exhibitions Group Vision and Mission

Vision: We are the home of exhibition practice. 

Mission: We connect and empower everyone in exhibitions to create relevant, sustainable, diverse and accessible exhibitions. 

2. The Exhibitions Group Values and Ethics 

Our values underpin everything we do.  

We are ambitious 

We are inclusive 

We are generous 

We are collaborative 

We are responsible 

3. Income policy

3.1 This income policy will be embedded and incorporated to reflect The Exhibition Group’s vision, mission and organisational values. These taken together will be the basis of all decisions taken on whether or not to accept members, funders, donors or to recruit partners, consultants, advisors and trustees.  This Policy will apply to all income.

3.2 This policy focuses on TEG’s aim to be a responsible, ethical and transparent organisation, mindful of its responsibilities to its membership community, individual professional members and the environment. The policy will be agreed on and upheld by TEG staff, consultants and Board of Trustees who will be accountable for upholding it. 

3.3 This policy is designed to  

• Ensure that the needs of TEG and the community of exhibitions members are in step with TEG’s vision, mission and values to maintain the integrity of the charity 

• Enable TEG to promote inclusion, innovation and best practice consistently 

• Protect TEG’s reputation  

• Provide guidance on the types of companies/partners/funders TEG will encourage (or discourage) as members and donors. 

3.4 The process within which TEG accepts members, funding and partnerships is guided by the following criteria: 

• Extreme caution in accepting partners which may pose a reputational risk to TEG and encourage negative publicity 

• Safeguarding the support and goodwill of the members we represent 

• Ensuring our continued ability to recruit staff, freelance contributors, trustees and advisors 
• Protecting our credibility and reputation in our mission to educate and be a thought leader in environmental responsibility, inclusivity and relevance in exhibition making.

4. The Exhibitions Group’s Expectations of Members, Partners and Funders

We require the highest standards of professional conduct from our members, partners and funders, and we look to them to share our commitment in  

4.1 Maintaining our environmental responsibility through our collective efforts to work towards net zero, ruling out organisations involved in extraction or investment in fossil fuels, and negatively impacting biodiversity 

4.2 Upholding human rights and respect for the individual regardless of race, gender, disability, religious beliefs, culture or sexual orientation 

4.3 Supporting peace building efforts during times of global conflict and abhorring unnecessary human suffering caused by such conflict 

4.4 Rejecting modern slavery and harm to indigenous communities 

4.5 Refusing to promote activities which risk the physical or mental health of vulnerable members of our society such as gambling or tobacco  

4.6 Upholding freedom of expression, transparency and accountability whilst refusing to engage with any organisation, individual or nation involved in illegal activity including hate speech1 

5. Decision-making process

5.1 Stage 1 Filtering – Identification of potential risk 

The Exhibitions Group automated application processing for members since 2026. This means the application process needs some data-gathering questions in that process to enable decisions to be made about applications that pose the potential to bring the organisation into disrepute.  

This automated first stage of decision-making identifies applications which may require a human judgement to be made about the suitability of the application. Please see the appendix to understand how this automation will be triggered to distinguish applications for consideration versus those which will be processed automatically. See Appendix 1 for details about how the automated flagging system will work. 

5.2 Stage 2 – Escalation – Due Diligence 

The Membership Manager will receive applications that are flagged by the system and will respond accordingly. Most flagged applications are expected only to need a quick check before being approved by the Membership Manager.  

Potentially controversial issues, behaviours, funding or associations are those that are relevant to the categories in sections 4.1 to 4.6  above and they may pose a risk to The Exhibitions Group’s reputation.  

Potentially controversial applications will be escalated to the Board. The decision to escalate to the Board may be taken if appropriate by the Finance & Risk Committee as an interim step. 

Escalated applications will likely include those from: 

• Media partnerships 

• Activist or campaigning organisations 

• Organisations with questionable or alleged animal welfare record 

• Fossil fuel companies going through transition to renewable energy 

• Any other organisation deemed to cause a risk to TEG and its members’ reputation 

5.3 Stage 3 – Board decision 

The Board will decide ideally consensually, or if necessary, based on a majority vote. The Board may also decide to conduct further due diligence. When necessary for reasons of speed, the Finance and Risk Committee may make the decision with delegated authority. Extraordinary meetings can be called by this Committee in the event of a query on a membership application.   

5.4 Stage 4 – Communications 

The Consulting team and the applicant will be informed about the decision.  

The Communications Manager and Executive Director will produce a statement for reactive use before communications are made to the applicant. This statement should be agreed by the Chairs / Finance and Risk Committee.  

6. Funders and Partners decision process

6.1 All funders and partners to be made aware of the expectations set out in Section 4 

 6.2 Dependent on the nature of the relationship, the clauses in Section 4 to be included in contracts.   

 6.3 As with the Membership decision-making process outlined in section 5, the Board or Finance & Risk Committee will make final decisions.