Charity

An investment in “cheaper TV advertising” during the pandemic helped income at Guide Dogs rise to record levels for the second consecutive year. The charity’s latest accounts for 2020 show income topped £125m for the first time, up from £122m in the previous year. Income from donations and legacies held stable at £108m, despite the

Almost half of charities with a large amount of assets have sold properties or other assets in an attempt to generate income during the pandemic, according to new research. The wealth management business James Hambro & Partners surveyed 100 senior executives of UK charities that have a minimum of £1m in investable assets in June

Oliver Dowden, the culture secretary, has been accused of politicising the Charity Commission’s appointment process after he warned that some charities need to stop “hunting for divisions”. In an article published in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper yesterday, Dowden railed against what he described as “a worrying trend in some charities that appear to have been

Islamic Relief Worldwide has reported a record total income for the fourth year in a row, driven by a surge in donations from the charity’s members. Its latest accounts, up to the end of December 2020, show its total income jumped from £131m in 2019 to just under £149m. Its accounts show this was due

The Chartered Institute of Fundraising has updated its disciplinary procedures so that it can name perpetrators in future investigations into sexual harassment.  A CIoF spokesman told Third Sector the decision had been made “for transparency”. Last month, the CIoF board published a report summarising the findings of a long-running investigation that upheld four complaints of

The education charity the Institute of Imagination has appointed Martin Allen Morales as its chief executive.  Allen Morales has worked at a range of organisations including the music company EMI, the technology firm Apple and the entertainment giant Disney, where he was executive director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa between 2007 and 2011. 

Total income at the Christian development charity Tearfund has remained stable as donations and legacies topped more than £80m during the pandemic. The charity’s latest accounts, up to 31 March 2021, show its total income fell slightly, to £81.4m from £85m in the previous year. Income from donations and legacies made up the majority of

Donations to charity by text message rose by almost two-thirds last year to a record high of almost £66m, according to new figures.  The latest Annual Market Review for Phone-Paid Services, written by the research firm Analysys Mason and published by the Phone-Paid Services Authority, showss UK charity donations by premium rate SMS rose to

A support charity has been ordered to pay out nearly £50,000 to a former staff member after it failed to recognise her “anxiety state” as a disability. A ruling from Watford Employment Tribunal said Blenheim CDP, which provides support to people on a range of issues, should pay Miss E Okeke £48,476, including £20,000 for

The British Council has declined to comment on government plans to make the charity exempt. The charity is the largest on the Charity Commission’s register by annual income, with an income of almost £1.3bn in the year to the end of March 2020. The council, which receives most of its income from running English language

The charity dedicated to the former Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill has denied it is disowning its connection to his legacy after rebranding last month.  The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust changed its name to the Churchill Fellowship last month and launched a new website. The charity operates a programme of overseas grants known as the

Charities are being urged to be proactive to avoid being overwhelmed by new pension costs that could arise as a result of changes in regulation. The Charity Finance Group is warning that the new regulations, which are expected to come into force next year, will significantly change how charities and other employers fund their defined

An administrative error has left council bosses red-faced after an animal sanctuary’s planning application was mistakenly refused and it was told its “proposal is whack”. An investigation is underway after officers for Mid Kent Planning Support team, which handles the online submissions on behalf of Swale Borough Council, accidentally published a dummy refusal decision notice

The British Heart Foundation’s charity shop network lost more than £40m last year as more than 700 shops were closed for up to eight months as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The charity’s latest accounts, for the year ending 31 March, show a 40 per cent drop in total annual income, from £151m in

Armed forces charities are set to receive £5m in funding from the government to help those who have served in Afghanistan.  Announcing the funding yesterday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the funding would also support those who had supported the mission and could be affected by recent events in the country.  The last UK troops

Breast Cancer Now has thanked an 83-year-old grandmother after she reached her £100,000 fundraising target for the charity after 24 years.  Eleanor Moffat’s fundraising efforts have included numerous coffee mornings, collection boxes, quiz sheets, car boot sales, dinner parties and sales of her homemade jam, plus a 90-mile walk along the Great Wall of China when she

The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator has contacted The Prince’s Foundation following allegations that the charity’s chief executive helped secure an honour for a Saudi Arabian businessman. The Sunday Times newspaper yesterday reported that leaked emails showed Michael Fawcett helped “fix” a CBE for Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz after he had donated more

The International Rescue Committee UK has become the 15th member of the Disasters Emergency Committee. The DEC is a coalition of major humanitarian aid charities that work together to respond to major disasters around the world, collectively raising money to help ensure that emergency relief reaches the people who need it most.  The charity works

The conservation charity WWF-UK has said it was “disappointed” to find its headquarters targeted by Extinction Rebellion protesters. The XR youth group was joined yesterday by activists from WTF WWF, a group that claims the charity has “participated in the evictions of hundreds of thousands of indigenous peoples from their ancestral homeland, for purposes of

The Charity Commission has cleared the race equality think tank the Runnymede Trust after the charity said a group of backbench Conservative MPs had launched a “politically motivated” attack on its work. The commission began looking into the trust in April after the charity was part of a large group of charities and individuals that

A more than 40 per cent surge in donations resulted in the Charities Aid Foundation distributing a record £958m to charities in 2020/21, new figures show. The amount passed to good causes through CAF accounts rose by £300m in the year to the end of April 2021 compared with the previous year, according to the

A scheme aimed at increasing innovation in social prescribing has been launched to meet an expected increase in demand.  The Accelerating Innovation programme, which is being run in partnership between the National Academy for Social Prescribing, the Royal Voluntary Service, NHS England and NHS Improvement, also hopes to improve the availability of social prescribing services. 

Charities are being warned to watch out for bogus tax rebate or refund requests after officials said they had identified about 1.5 million scams during the pandemic. In a letter to the Charity Tax Group at the end of August, HM Revenue & Customs warned charities to be careful if they were contacted “out of

Charities could be missing out on up to £50m in donations as research suggests that individuals have held on to cash for three times longer than they did before the pandemic. A new survey by the trade association UK Finance shows that cash as a method of payment has declined because of the Covid-19 pandemic,

An animal charity has been wound up and two trustees have been disqualified after an inquiry found it received just £1.8m from a £10m arrangement with a fundraising agency. The Alternative Animal Sanctuary was set up to offer permanent care to abandoned and neglected animals across England and Wales. But the Charity Commission opened an

A charity that regulates the cyber security education and skills sector has appointed its first permanent chief executive. The UK Cyber Security Council has brought in Simon Hepburn to succeed Don MacIntyre, who was appointed as interim chief executive by the board of trustees in January during the council’s formation. Hepburn is the founder of

The National Trust made nearly 1,800 people redundant as it looked to plug £173m in lost income as a result of the pandemic.  The conservation charity’s latest accounts for the year ending 28 February show total annual income fell from nearly £681m in 2019/20 to £508m in 2020/21.  The charity said this was largely down to

Simon Hepburn is a 20-year veteran of the charity, education and careers sector London – September 1st 2021 – The UK Cyber Security Council – the charitable, self-regulatory body for the cyber security education and skills sector – today announced the appointment of Simon Hepburn, a charity and education executive with over twenty years’ experience

An employee of the British Red Cross has won an employment tribunal claim after the charity did not respond in time. Midlands East Employment Tribunal documents show that the claim brought by an employee named J Creasey succeeded because the charity “failed to provide a valid response on time”. Employment judge Kimbra Welch decided that

The National Lottery Community Fund has helped to invest £650m in more than 10,000 community spaces and infrastructure over the past five years, new figures show. A report published today, called Connections Make Communities, explores the impact of government and third-party funding awarded by the grant-maker between 2016 and 2021 in England. This investment has