Salford fundraising company closed
Howard Lake | 5 August 2007 | News
A Salford-based company using telesales and personal collectors to raise money for charity has been wound-up by the Insolvency Service after it discovered that only three per cent of money raised was paid to charities.
Changing A Life Ltd was not affiliated to any charity but claimed to distribute 50 per cent of the funds donated to child related causes. However, investigators found that just three per cent of more than £275,000 was paid out to good causes between May 2006 and January 2007 when the company ceased trading with more liabilities than assets.
The investigators said that the company was in breach of charity legislation and failed to tell donors exactly how much would be given to the good causes, and its record keeping was so poor that it was impossible to ensure all money donated to specific causes actually went to that cause.
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Earlier this year, one of the company’s senior managers was jailed for two years afer being convicted of offences committed while previously employed by a charity fundraiser.
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.