Charity

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

The LGBTQ+ rights charity Stonewall has defended the impartiality of its diversity scheme after the UK’s media regulator announced it would no longer participate in it due to a “risk of perceived bias”. Ofcom said it had decided to step back from its membership of the Diversity Champions programme after a review of its relationship

A gambling harms prevention charity has made a number of senior hires as part of a restructure that aims to expand its capacity to deliver a public health approach to its work. GambleAware said the appointments were needed to help meet the objectives laid out in its new five-year strategy, which includes increased investments based

The National Trust has announced it will introduce “Mediterranean” shifts for employees working on some sites during the summer months in response to the UK’s warmer weather. Staff and volunteers in south-east England will start earlier, finish later, and have longer lunch breaks in the event of “extreme” temperatures under the new measures. The charity

The Chartered Institute of Fundraising has announced plans to end its relationship with the HR consultancy Tell Jane, with the consultancy saying it is “disappointed” in the CIoF. In a report summarising Tell Jane’s findings from its investigation into allegations of sexual harassment at CIoF events and the CIoF’s handling of sexual harassment complaints, published

One of the survivors in the Chartered Institute of Fundraising sexual harassment case yesterday described the investigation report as “gaslighting”, saying she has lost her “final shreds of faith” in the CIoF. In a statement, the fundraising consultant Beth Upton said that significant elements of her evidence had been overlooked in the investigation, despite her formal

Charities have been offered the chance to apply for free SIM cards with 20GB of data, texts and calls for six months, through an initiative launched by the mobile phone network Vodafone in an attempt to tackle digital exclusion. Any charity that would benefit from free connectivity can apply for six months of free connectivity

Two married former trustees at an animal rescue charity used a £200,000 donation to pay off part of a loan they obtained to buy a detached house and up to 40 acres of land, a Charity Commission inquiry has found. The regulator opened an investigation into The Retreat Animal Rescue after placing it into a

Charities with HSBC accounts face a host of new charges from November after the bank announced it will charge a £60 a year fee just to keep the accounts open. The bank has also introduced charges for branch transactions including a 0.4 per cent fee to pay in and withdraw cash, a charge of £4

Up to 26 people will be made redundant at the charity fundraising website Virgin Money Giving when it closes its doors following its final sponsorship of the London Marathon later this year. Virgin Money announced the closure today after carrying out a strategic review of the fundraising platform in light of the end of its

The investigation into sexual misconduct at the Chartered Institute of Fundraising has upheld four allegations of sexual harassment against a CIoF Fellow. The investigation, conducted by the consultancy Tell Jane, was launched in March this year to look into the complaints against the Fellow and allegations that the CIoF had been made aware of his

Unicef UK has appointed Jon Sparkes as its executive director. He will join the children’s charity from his current role as chief executive of the national charity for homeless people, Crisis UK. Steve Waugh, Unicef UK’s chief financial officer, will continue as interim executive director until Sparkes takes up his new role early next. Crisis UK

Adult safeguarding concerns more than doubled at Save the Children International while child safeguarding concerns dropped by nearly a third, according to the charity’s latest accounts.  The adult cases covered a wide range of incidents, from disrespectful comments in the workplace to bullying behaviour by line managers and misuse of power and abuse involving community

The platform, developed in conjunction with software developer Amdaris, has helped 93% of therapy users find a therapist who match their needs, putting power in people’s hands Paranimo’s partnership with Amdaris secures Innovate UK funding and COVID-19 Business Response grant to help scale the platform to UK charities Bristol, UK; 24th August 2021: Mental health

The government is facing a High Court battle over the allocation of its £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund, amid claims it is funnelling money to constituencies for its own political benefit.  Judges have agreed to hear a case brought by campaign group the Good Law Project, which means the government will have to defend the criteria

The Charity Commission has opened a regulatory compliance case into a children’s charity after two trustees were found to be using it to further their own business.  A number of allegations were reported against Miss Dorothy.com and the Dot Com Children’s Foundation in several publications over the weekend, including The Times newspaper.  The children’s charity

Grants of up to £50,000 are available for charities in London aiming to tackle unemployment among blind and partially sighted people. The Vision Foundation’s 2021 fund is inviting applications that will help to tackle barriers that prevent visually impaired people from getting into work. These may include negative perceptions among employers or the public, delivering

The Charity Commission has confirmed it did not identify any issues of concern regarding the actions of an ME charity, after investigating a complaint that the organisation endorsed a clinical trial described as a “scandal”. Action for ME supports people living with myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome. The debilitating condition, which can

The bishop of a charity-run church has appeared in court charged with fraud and unfair trading offences after being accused of promoting fake coronavirus protection kits. Climate Wiseman, who has been involved with The Kingdom Church GB charity in south London since 2002, appeared at Lavender Hill Magistrates’ Court on Monday. Wiseman indicated not guilty

A senior policy advisor to the Scottish government has been appointed chief executive of the youth charity Winning Scotland. Zahra Hedges will replace Morag Arnot, who has served as executive director at the children and young people’s charity since 2013. Hedges worked in leadership and management roles across the public, private and third sectors for

A woman in her twenties has been arrested and questioned under caution as part of an investigation into allegations that more than £32,000 raised for a youth charity via a crowdfunding page has been stolen, police have confirmed. The crowdfunder was set up by a local Black Lives Matter group ahead of a demonstration in

The founder of an animal rescue charity based in Kabul, Afghanistan, has confirmed the organisation has raised more than £200,000 after setting up an emergency fundraiser to evacuate staff and animals.  Kabul-based organisation Nowzad launched an emergency fundraising appeal titled “Operation Ark” earlier this week, in an effort to raise the funds so the charity

On Tuesday, the organisers of the world-famous London Marathon announced that the race planned for April 2022 would once again be pushed back to October. The marathon, founded in 1981, has traditionally taken place in April, but as a result of the pandemic the 2020 event was moved to October before being made into an

The government has called on charities to give their views on the Brexit Trade and Cooperation Agreement signed between the UK and the European Union.  The more than 1,200-page agreement, which covers every aspect of the UK’s future relationship with the EU, was published at the start of this year.  The consultation document states: “The

Corporate gift provides dollar-for-dollar matching to donations received in the 2021 TGF Art Challenge to Celebrate Vision London, UK – August 19, 2021 – As part of its twentieth anniversary celebration and its “year of giving back,” Endace is supporting The Glaucoma Foundation’s Art Challenge to Celebrate Vision with a corporate donation of US$20,000. Endace

Charities and investment advisers held mixed views on the Charity Commission’s draft responsible investment guidance update, according to a summary of consultation responses.  The regulator ran a six week public consultation in April and May this year.  It was designed to address feedback, obtained in an earlier listening exercise, that the commission’s investment guidance did

A wellbeing charity has been ordered to pay out more than £57,000 in owed redundancy and unauthorised deductions from wages payments to a dozen former staff members. East London Employment Tribunal documents show that the Laindon Community Association paid out for 12 separate claims made against the charity for unauthorised deductions from wages in respect