OSCR & Foundation Scotland collaboration sees over £5mn from dormant trusts released to date
Melanie May | 19 December 2024 | News
A collaboration between The Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) and Foundation Scotland has released over £5million of dormant funds for public benefit in the country since 2021.
The Revitalising Trusts project launched in 2021 and has to date identified over 300 inactive charitable trusts of varying sizes and purposes, with forgotten funds often lying dormant in accounts for several decades and in some cases well over a century.
Examples include a trust set up to offer medical support pre-NHS, one set up to supply financial assistance to widows of “good character” before government pensions were made available to women, and another to provide educational bursaries for boys with a particular surname.
The OSCR identifies inactive trusts through its regulatory checks: trusts that have either had no income or expenditure or donated less than 30% of their total income over the last five years.
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The Revitalising Trusts project team then makes contact to offer support and assistance to help reopen, repurpose or wind up the trust, with the overarching aim of releasing the funds for public good. Foundation Scotland also works alongside trustees and legal teams to ensure that any inactive charitable funds are spent and make a difference in keeping with “the spirit” of the original intentions.
In England and Wales, the Charity Commission and UK Community Foundations also work together to revitalise dormant or inactive trusts and support trustees through the process.
“More to come”
Steff Bell, Revitalising Trust Project Advisor at Foundation Scotland said:
“Releasing over £5million for charitable causes is a significant achievement, and something we are very proud of, but the potential is much greater, and we know there’s much more to come. We’re committed to working alongside OSCR to ensure that every penny currently sitting in a dormant charitable account reaches a cause fitting with the original intentions. This is especially important in the current difficult climate. Each of the trusts we work alongside has its own story and its own charitable purpose, but in every case, funds have been put aside for the benefit of others, not to lie dormant when needs exist. Each dormant charitable trust we uncover has its own individual nuances and requires a bespoke plan.
“We are making great progress; overall, the trustees we have approached have received the offer of support positively, with several indicating that they’d been stuck for several years, unsure how to take next steps to distribute funds. We’re also gaining traction amongst the legal profession, who are often a gateway to these trusts, and we’re actively encouraging anyone working with a charity that has fallen inactive to reach out to us. I’m confident that by working together, we can help many more trusts to maximise their funds and reach for public good.”
Steve Kent, Policy Manager at OSCR said:
“Of the many things we have to do as a regulator, none is more rewarding than working with Foundation Scotland to track down historic underused charitable funds and find new ways of putting them to good use. We have seen that even a few thousand pounds here and there can have life-changing impacts in local communities. The donors and philanthropists of the past may not always have been able to envision the challenges that would face future generations, but one thing we can be sure of is that they would have wished their money to make real differences to people’s lives. We are most grateful to the many charity trustees and professional advisors entrusted with those funds who are determined to honour that spirit by working with us to breathe life into them once more. We are confident that there is plenty more still to be found and we would encourage anyone struggling to find good use for a trust fund to come forward.”
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.