Charity

Funding packages worth up to £300,000 are being made available to charities and community groups as part of the first round of the government’s Community Ownership Fund. The £150m initiative was announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak as part of his Spring Budget in March. Charities can bid for grants of up to £50,000 in revenue

The chief executive of Cats Protection is to step down after three years to lead an international membership body for animal protection organisations. James Yeates will leave Cats Protection in October to become chief executive of the World Federation for Animals, which advocates for animals at the United Nations. The WFA, which is based in

A former adviser to the Prime Minister has been appointed chief executive of The Royal Anniversary Trust, a charity that manages the Queen’s Anniversary Prizes. Kristina Murrin will succeed Peter Chenery when he retires in March after 15 years in post. Murrin stepped down from her role as chief executive of the National Leadership Centre

Gwen Hines, executive director of global programmes at Save the Children UK, has been promoted to chief executive. Hines, who has been with the charity since 2018, succeeds Kevin Watkins, who announced in March that he planned to step down after five years in the role. Before joining Save the Children Hines had two stints

Public trust in charities has reached its highest level since 2014, research published by the Charity Commission has shown.  An independent study carried out by the polling company Yonder showed that the people’s trust in charities came out as an average of 6.4 out of 10, up from 6.2 a year ago and significantly higher

Rita Chadha will step down as the chief executive of the Small Charities Coalition at the end of September, she announced today.  Chadha has been chief executive of the SCC for two years, having stepped into the role initially part-time in July 2019 before stepping up to full-time the following September.  In an email to members

Property maintenance staff at the homelessness charity St Mungo’s have ended their strike action after almost three months. The union Unite said members in the charity’s maintenance team had voted to return to work after it was agreed that an independent review would take place into the charity’s handling of bullying claims raised by staff.

The final fundraising total for last year’s BBC Children in Need appeal was up £3m on the previous year, new figures show. The charity said the final total for the 2020 appeal, which was broadcast in November, had reached £57m compared with £54m in the previous year. The on-the-night total for the coronavirus-affected 2020 appeal

The Charity Commission has said it is assessing concerns about the governance of The Donkey Sanctuary after its chief executive stepped down. The animal welfare charity confirmed that Mike Baker, who had led the organisation since 2016, left on 18 June but declined to give any further details.  Baker joined The Donkey Sanctuary, which is

The Charity Commission is not the “all-powerful regulator of its sector”, according to the Conservative peer who conducted a review of the Charities Act 2006. Speaking in a House of Lords debate of latest Charities Bill, Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts said he had a “really serious concern” about the new legislation. Hodgson said the

Trustees of major charities could find themselves held personally liable for accounting errors under proposed government audit reforms.  A government white paper called Restoring Trust in Audit and Corporate Governance, which was published in March, sets out proposals designed to strengthen the UK’s framework for major companies and the way they are audited. The paper puts

Scotland’s First Minister has been among those to pay tribute to the executive director of the women’s equality charity Engender, who died last week aged 44. Emma Ritch, who had worked at the charity for more than 13 years, died suddenly on Friday, a statement from Engender said. It is understood she died at home

Two consultants have pulled out of a Unicef UK project after accusing the charity of institutional racism. Fifa Rahman and Rachael Crockett said in a statement on social media that they had withdrawn from a project on health systems strengthening because of hurdles “grounded in institutional racism, including racist language and the contention of Unicef

British Columbia, Canada – PebblePad has today announced that it has been chosen by BCNET, a not-for-profit, shared services organization in British Columbia, Canada as a preferred learning technology provider for their education members across the province. This landmark partnership will mean that universities, colleges and institutes across British Columbia will have easy access to

Five large charities have launched an initiative designed to make payroll giving more accessible and encourage more people to take part.  The collaboration between Barnardo’s, Crisis, The Royal British Legion, RNIB and WaterAid will take the form of an independent business, called WeAreGoodGiving, which is wholly owned by the five charities.  Payroll giving enables workers to nominate

A London-based domestic violence charity has described allegations of racism made by current and former staff members as “defamatory and untrue” after they appeared on The Independent website.  Allegations of “institutional racism and gaslighting” and a “harmful culture” at Solace Women’s Aid were first made in an open letter, published on Twitter on Saturday, purportedly from

A man who stole £57,000 of charitable donations meant to help children with disabilities or serious illnesses has been jailed for more than two years.  Scott Wright, 45 and of Hengrove, Bristol, admitted spending the funds from the Darren Wright Foundation, which he ran.  Last week at Bristol Crown Court he was sentenced to 28

The UK’s national accounts do not account for the contribution of charities or the millions of volunteer hours provided by people around the UK each week, economists have said.  Research by the charity think tank Pro Bono Economics shows that the national accounts – the statistics that describe the size and nature of the UK’s

A former gardener at a National Trust property has been awarded nearly £50,000 in compensation for unfair dismissal, harassment and discrimination. A tribunal ruling published this week shows that employment judges were unanimous in their decision that Claire Bryant was constructively unfairly dismissed by the charity. The tribunal, at Ashford, Kent, upheld complaints of direct

A grant-maker that supports young people is urging Ealing Council to rethink plans to demolish one of only three youth centres in the borough. The John Lyon’s Charity said it had reached out to the local authority and asked it to consider the devastating effect on the community if the Young Adult Centre in Southall

Working in a user-centred way will allow charities to create greater impact, according to Samir Patel, chief executive of Comic Relief. Speaking at the think tank NPC’s virtual summer reception yesterday, Patel said user-centred working should be viewed as a philosophy, rather than something that charities needed an incentive to do. Patel, who joined the

The homelessness charity Emmaus UK has appointed Charlotte Talbott as its next chief executive. Talbott will succeed Simon Grainge, who stepped down at the end of May after five years in the role, saying it was the right time to move on. Talbott has spent the past four years at the homelessness charity The Connection

The Charity Commission has apologised to a whistleblowing charity after a review found aspects of its compliance case “disproportionate” and identified a number of other shortcomings. In April 2019, trustees of Compassion in Care made a complaint to the regulator about its handling of the case relating to the charity’s governance.  The charity, which was

The transgender young people’s support charity Mermaids has been fined £25,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office after personal information relating to 550 people was available online for almost three years. The regulator also concluded that the charity had a “negligent approach towards data protection with inadequate policies and a lack of training for staff”. The

A football charity has been told to pay almost £14,000 to a former employee after an employment tribunal ruled he had been victimised.  An employment tribunal ruling published this week shows that Colchester United’s Football in the Community charity was ordered to pay Mark Harris, a former community development officer at the charity, a total

The Daily Mail has agreed to pay £15,000 plus legal costs to a Muslim charity it falsely accused of colluding with people smugglers. It is the second title to make a payment to the humanitarian charity the Al-Khair Foundation in relation to articles published in December about Somali migrants trying to reach Europe. In April,

A Christian charity is being examined by the Charity Commission after material on its website was unearthed that promotes misogynistic messages, including blaming women for rape. The National Secular Society said it had raised concerns about the Holiness Revival Movement Worldwide Europe, also known as Horemow Europe, with the Charity Commission in June. The NSS,

The hearing loss charity RNID has sold off its care and support services to a private care provider in a move that will transfer almost 600 staff from the charity.  The RNID first mooted plans to sell off its care services at the end of 2019 after it revealed it wanted to pay off its debts

Max Woosey, the 11-year-old who has been sleeping in a tent for more than a year to raise funds for North Devon Hospice, will sleep out at London Zoo to raise awareness of an annual fundraiser for Action for Children.  Action for Children said it had arranged for Woosey to pitch his tent near the

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution had defended its actions from accusations that is has become “a taxi service for illegal immigration”. The search and rescue charity drew criticism over the weekend after some newspapers published images of its lifeboats returning from saving people who had been attempting to cross the English Channel to the UK.