Charity returns £100,000 grant after "communication failure"
Howard Lake | 29 March 2007 | Blogs
The Motor Neurone Disease Association has returned a donation of £100,000 from the Stone-Mallabar Charitable Foundation, according to Third Sector magazine. The unusual decision came after the association decided that the funder’s requirement that it be spent on a particular project was not consistent with the charity’s strategic objectives.
The decision was a brave one for the MNDA, but correct. The fact that it has become public knowledge should also redound to the charity’s credit.
Indeed, both funder and recipient seem to have realised that there was a genuine communication failure between them. Jonathan Stone, founding trustee of the Stone-Mallabar Foundation, told Third Sector: “There was a failure of communication, but that was yesterday, and we are getting on with our lives.”
It is encouraging to see two charities adopt such a professional stance over what could be a potentially damaging issue.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.