Charity

A former chair of the Charity Commission has criticised the government for lacking urgency in appointing one of his successors. William Shawcross, who was chair of the regulator between October 2012 and January 2018 but is now the Commissioner for Public Appointments, made the comments in his report into the failed appointment of Martin Thomas

The Charity Commission is unaware of any legal action against its investigators conducting its inquiry into the Professional Footballers’ Association Charity despite weekend media reports, Third Sector understands. An article published by the Mail on Sunday newspaper yesterday claimed that four trustees at the PFAC, which is the charitable arm of the professional footballers’ union,

The government is inviting charities to help deliver nearly £400m in funding for youth services over the next three years. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport said any charity interested in partnering on the second phase of the Youth Investment Fund would need to apply by the end of the month. YIF 2

The Labour Party has named a former charity consultant as its shadow civil society minister, filling a vacancy that has been open for three months. Barbara Keeley MP, who represents Worsley and Eccles South, said charities had a role in creating “a better, more prosperous Britain”. She will cover both civil society and arts policy.

Income stabilised last year at the charity behind the Which? brand, 12 months on from suffering a major fall. Total income at the Consumers’ Association was down slightly in the year to June 2021, while spending rose by about £1m, according to accounts filed with Companies House yesterday. The association had a surplus of £4.2m

The Charity Commission has been asked to undertake additional due diligence relating to charities connected to its proposed new chair, Third Sector understands. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport this week announced the commercial barrister Orlando Fraser as its preferred candidate to be the next chair of the regulator. It came after the

Frontline staff at one of the UK’s biggest care charities are to receive a second pay increase in six months. Community Integrated Care announced that salaries for its support workers would next month rise to £10 an hour in England and £11 an hour in Scotland. The rise is expected to affect about 5,000 members

Barnardo’s has appointed one of its joint interim chief executives to the permanent role. Lynn Perry, who has been at the charity for 13 years, has been its corporate director for children’s services since 2019 and took up the top job on a permanent basis yesterday. She has been co-interim chief executive of the charity

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations has named Sarah Vibert as its permanent chief executive. Vibert, who has been the membership body’s interim chief executive for the past year, promised that the NCVO would be a “generous, collaborative leader in the sector and beyond”. The NCVO said more than 200 people applied for the position

Major charity membership bodies and the shadow culture secretary have raised questions about the party political links of the government’s choice of candidate for the next chair of the Charity Commission. The membership bodies Acevo and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations said they were concerned about the links to the Conservative Party of the

The Charity Commission has criticised three former trustees of an educational charity after the husband of the charity’s founder was given money to pay for hairdressing appointments, concerts and weekend trips away. The regulator has published a report into its inquiry into Hope House School, which runs a small independent school near Newark, Nottinghamshire, for

Income at WWF-UK grew by about 4 per cent last year, from £80.8m to £84.4m, new figures show. The charity also spent £82m in the year to June 2021, up from £78m, according to its latest annual accounts, which were filed with Companies House today. The additional income was driven by a rise in corporate

Three former trustees of a charitable school have been disqualified for a total of 32 years after the Charity Commission found “repeated and significant failings” at the charity. The regulator said in a inquiry report that trustees of the now-defunct Albayan Education Foundation, which ran the former Birmingham Muslim School and provided aid to people

Charities are being urged to avoid sending blanket emails to politicians and look to focus on one-to-one meetings and events instead, according to a new report. A Shared Interest, published today by the Law Family Commission on Civil Society, a two-year initiative launched by Pro Bono Economics in December 2020 to examine how the potential

The Chelsea FC owner, Roman Abramovich, has said he will sell the club and use the net proceeds to set up a charitable foundation to support people affected by the war in Ukraine. Chris Bryant, the Labour MP for Rhondda, used parliamentary privilege last week to call in the House of Commons for Abramovich’s assets

Measures in the Elections Bill will undermine charities’ ability to campaign and increase the regulatory burden upon them, peers have heard. In a debate about the legislation in the House of Lords, several peers expressed concerns that the legislation would negatively affect charities’ campaigning activities. The Elections Bill, which covers matters relating to the running

The Charity Commission has joined the Fundraising Regulator in warning charities to be careful about where they accept donations from in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Gerald Oppenheim, chief executive of the Fundraising Regulator, warned yesterday that charities should be “extra vigilant” about accepting donations connected to Russia. A statement today from Helen

The military charity Royal British Legion Industries has appointed Lisa Farmer as its chief executive. She will become the first woman to lead the charity in its more than 100-year history, when its outgoing chief executive, Steve Sherry, retires after 12 years in post. Farmer joined the RBLI as its director of strategic development in

Charities need to be “extra vigilant” about accepting donations connected to Russia, the chief executive of the Fundraising Regulator has said. Speaking at a virtual event hosted by the regulator to launch its annual report, Gerald Oppenheim said charities should refer to the Code of Fundraising Practice and to Charity Commission guidance if they were

The Charity Commission has contacted the Chelsea FC Foundation after Roman Abramovich announced he was passing control of Chelsea Football Club to the charity. Abramovich, who has owned the club since 2003, said in a statement over the weekend that he was giving “stewardship” of it to the trustees of the Chelsea FC Foundation. His

Unicef UK has raised more than £1m in four days to support children affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In a statement to Third Sector, the charity said it was “extremely grateful for the amazing response from the public in just four days since the appeal went live”. The charity said it had been

The charity formed by the merger of Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation has rebranded as Asthma + Lung UK. The merged charity, which was created in January 2020, said its new logo was “representative of the coming together of the two former lung charities to create one organisation fighting for people’s right to

The chief executive of the grant-maker the Jack Petchey Foundation is to step down after 14 years in the role. Trudy Kilcullen will be succeeded by Gemma Juma, who joined the charity as operations director in 2017 before becoming deputy chief executive last year. Juma previously worked for voluntary sector organisations including the volunteering charity

The grant-maker The Julia and Hans Rausing Trust has made a £3m donation to the young people’s homelessness charity Centrepoint. The gift, which is the biggest individual donation the charity has received in its 52-year history, will go towards Centrepoint’s Independent Living Programme, which aims to build 300 homes in London and Manchester to be

Ninety-eight per cent of the eligible charities paid the Fundraising Regulator’s levy last year – the highest repayment rate in the watchdog’s five-year history. The regulator’s annual accounts, published yesterday, show that in the year to 31 August 2021, 1,974 of the 2,072 eligible organisations paid the fee, contributing a total of almost £2.2m to

Investment gains, better than expected retail performance and an emergency appeal that raised more than £12m helped the older people’s charity Age UK turn a £8.3m deficit into a £9.4m surplus last year.  The charity’s latest accounts show that for the year to the end of March 2021, it recorded an income of £127.1m and

The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust has responded to a national newspaper article that questioned the salaries paid to its top employees. The Daily Mail newspaper ran a piece highlighting the fact that in the year to the end of March last year, the charity spent 98 per cent of its almost £800,000 income on salaries for

The Conservative peer Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts is expected to urge the government to introduce a code of practice covering activities that could be seen as influencing elections and reduce the time period during which election proceedings are deemed to be active for lobbying purposes. The Elections Bill, which has already completed its passage

A trustee of the grant-maker the Southall Trust is to step down next month after 60 years in the role. Ninety-three-year-old Annette Wallis has announced she will step down on 14 March from a position she has held since 1962. The trust was established in 1937 by her grandfather, Wilfred Francis Southall, using proceeds from

Arts organisations in more than 100 culturally underserved areas of the country could benefit from £75m levelling up funding over the next three years in a drive to improve access to the arts. Arts Council England and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport announced today that they have identified 109 “Levelling Up for