Charity Commission report underlines need for trustees to control fundraising
Howard Lake | 12 January 2012 | News
The Charity Commission’s report on its inquiry into the Needy Children International Foundation has underlined the need for “trustees to manage and control fundraising effectively, efficiently and economically”.
The charity, which has since been closed, was, according to the Commission, “connected to a number of individuals previously involved in improper fundraising activities”. Only a small proportion of its funds were being spent on charitable activity, so potential donors were being misled about how their money would be spent. The Commission’s inquiry concluded that “trustees had not taken sufficient steps to protect the charity’s funds or its reputation”.
In particular it found that they had “not taken appropriate steps to ensure the individuals employed by both the charity and its trading subsidiary were fit and proper persons to take responsibility of the charity’s funds”. The Commission also ruled that trustees had also failed to ensure the trading subsidiary observed its legal requirements when fundraising on behalf of the charity.
Although the charity did take some remedial actions including terminating its relationship with the two individuals previously involved in its fundraising operation, and discontinuing its clothing collections, the Commission had also referred its concerns regarding the charity’s fundraising activities to the Insolvency Service. Following the latter’s investigation, the charity was wound up on 23 May 2011.
The Commission’s report includes eight issues of wider concern arising from the investigation for the charity sector.
www.charitycommission.gov.uk/Our_regulatory_activity/Compliance_reports/inquiry_reports/needy_children.aspx
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.