Were you at the Presidents Club’s dinner? The Charity Commission would like to know
Howard Lake | 20 February 2018 | News
The Charity Commission is inviting anyone who has relevant information about the Presidents Club Charitable Trust and the charity’s fundraising event on 18 January to come forward. The regulator of charities in England and Wales is determining whether trustees of the charity have complied with their legal duties and responsibilities.
Following reports by the FT of misogynistic behaviour at the men-only charity event at which hostesses “were groped, sexually harassed and propositioned”, the Commission opened a regulatory compliance case on 24 January 2018.
Tracy Howarth, Head of Regulatory Compliance at the Charity Commission, said: “It is important that anyone who attended or worked at the event knows they can come forward and raise concerns with us. We can’t provide any legal remedy or compensation to individuals. But what we can and must do, is to assess whether the trustees of the charity complied with important legal duties and responsibilities in managing their charity.
“We want to ensure we have all the information possible to make a balanced and reasoned assessment of the facts. So I would like to encourage anyone with relevant information to come forward.”
Anyone with information should contact the Commission at ra**********@ch***************.uk.
SEE ALSO: City event announced to fund charities affected by Presidents Club dinner scandal (26 January 2018)
Not all of the issues raised by the event are within the Commission’s regulatory remit, so it is working with other relevant regulators.
The police have stated that any allegations of criminal behaviour should be reported to them.
Following the extensive criticism of the event, the trustees of the Presidents Club Charitable Trust have decided to carry out an orderly winding up of the charity.
The Commission published guidance on its website for those charities who are considering whether or not they should, or can, return charitable funds. In most cases, the Commission’s consent will be required to authorise the return of historic donations.
The trustees have established a separate contact point to deal with complaints and intend to appoint an appropriately qualified independent complaints assessor to consider those complaints received. No complaints have been made to date.
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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.