Charity

The Charity Commission has disqualified a trustee of a now-defunct Birmingham-based charity that claimed it lost all of its financial records in the Grenfell Tower disaster in London.  A report published by the regulator setting out its findings in relation to its inquiry into The Voice Of Truth, which had objects of promoting the benefit

In this month’s bumper special episode, features and analysis writer Rebecca Cooney and editor Emily Burt find out about the Hidden Leaders: Disability Leadership in Civil Society report, commissioned by the charity leaders body Acevo. The report, published earlier this month, explored how Acevo and other senior leaders in the voluntary sector can create a more

Time is running out to submit entries for Third Sector’s Business Charity Awards 2021, which celebrate the significant contribution made by companies to UK charities and social enterprises.  The deadline for entries in this year’s awards is 11:59pm on 23 February.  The independent charitable foundation the Berkeley Foundation won multiple awards at Third Sector’s 2020

More than 50 heritage and culture organisations have received a share of £18m of government funding for regeneration and maintenance projects.   The final grants have been allocated by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the British Film Institute on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport. The funding is part of the

The animal welfare charities Blue Cross and the Scottish SPCA have formed a partnership designed to enable them to share best practice and reach more people.  The organisations said they had launched a joint research study with the University of Edinburgh to identify ways to contact people living with pets in hard-to-reach, minority or vulnerable

More than two dozen charity sector leaders from minoritised communities have signed an open letter calling for charities to hold themselves accountable for tackling discrimination by publishing three-year equality, diversity and inclusion targets.  The letter, which has been shared with the National Council for Voluntary Organisations and the charity leaders body Acevo, has also been signed

The disability charity Whizz-Kidz has appointed Sarah Pugh as its next chief executive.  Pugh, who has spent almost six years as chief executive of Heart of Kent Hospice, will succeed Ruth Owen, who has taken up the top job at the disability charity Leonard Cheshire after 17 years at Whizz-Kidz.  Whizz-Kidz, which provides equipment and

Charity retailers were not as badly hit as the rest of the high street in the final quarter of last year, new figures indicate.  Statistics from the accountancy firm BDO, produced with the Charity Retail Association, found that like-for-like sales in charity shops were down by 19.2 per cent in October compared with the same

Data-led insight delivers greater understanding of donors to support charity’s growth London, 17 February 2021 – Data and insight company REaD Group has announced that it is working with the Trussell Trust, supporting the good work the charity does through donor and volunteer engagement and fundraising. Trussell Trust logo The Trussell Trust is a charity

The children’s charity Action for Children acquired an after-school club in Scotland last year as part of a £1m deal, new figures show. The charity’s latest accounts, for the year to the end of March 2020, show it bought a business called Out of School Scotland in June 2019. The company provides after-school clubs, breakfast

– This article has been updated; please see final paragraph. The chief executive of St Andrew’s Healthcare received a payment of about £28,000 last year as the charity closed a performance-related bonus scheme, latest figures show. The charity’s accounts for the year to 31 March 2020 show chief executive Katie Fisher was paid between £303,000

Four in 10 charities reported a fall in the amount of time they received from volunteers last year as the coronavirus pandemic hit, new figures show. Latest data from the Covid-19 Voluntary Sector Impact Barometer, which is produced by Nottingham Trent University, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations and Sheffield Hallam University, found that of

The chief executive of St Andrew’s Healthcare received a one-off payment of about £60,000 last year as the charity closed a performance-related bonus scheme, latest figures show. The charity’s accounts for the year to 31 March 2020 show chief executive Katie Fisher was paid between £330,000 and £340,000, up from the equivalent of £275,000 in

Charities and heritage groups have been summoned to a controversial meeting with the culture secretary as part of a move to warn them off attempts to “rewrite” British history. Several news outlets reported over the weekend that 25 of the UK’s biggest heritage bodies and charities have been invited to a summit where Oliver Dowden

The High Court is poised to deliver its verdict in the case against Camila Batmanghelidjh and a group of former trustees of the collapsed charity Kids Company. The 10-week trial concluded in December in a case that has reignited conversations in the sector about the role of trustees in a charity’s governance. The Official Receiver

A group of 50 funders have signed a pledge saying they will be “open and trusting” in their grant-making as part of a new campaign aimed at encouraging more flexible funding practices.  The #FlexibleFunders campaign, which has been launched today by the Institute for Voluntary Action Research (Ivar) with London Funders and a small group

The disqualification proceedings brought against Camila Batmanghelidjh and a group of former trustees of the collapsed charity Kids Company have been dismissed. The High Court judgment today rejected the case brought by the Official Receiver against Batmanghelidjh, founder and former chief executive of the charity, and seven other trustees of the charity at the time

This week, features and analysis writer Rebecca Cooney and editor Emily Burt recap the news about the NCVO equality, diversity and inclusion report, which found evidence of “bullying and harassment” on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation and disability happening “with impunity” at all levels of the organisation.  The story sparked a Twitter campaign #NotJustNCVO,

Lawyers have criticised the “flimsy” case brought against the former leaders of Kids Company and said dedicated service by charity trustees “must never again be repaid by such gross injustice”. The High Court rejected the disqualification case brought by the Official Receiver against Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder and former chief executive of Kids Company, and seven

Press Release Private wealth firm successfully represents one of the former trustees LONDON — Maurice Turnor Gardner LLP (MTG), a boutique private wealth law firm, today welcomed Mrs Justice Falk’s judgment handed down for the Kids Company 10 week trial in favour of the defendants; seven of the former charity trustees and CEO Camila Batmanghelidjh.

Exoneration will banish the false myths surrounding Kids Company, the charity’s founder has said. The High Court today dismissed the case brought by the Official Receiver against Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder and former chief executive of the charity, and seven other trustees at the time it closed abruptly in 2015.  The OR had been attempting to secure

A long-standing trustee and former president of the British Psychological Society has resigned citing concerns about governance, spending and transparency. The BPS is the charity that acts as the representative body for psychology and psychologists in the UK. It is responsible for the promotion of excellence and ethical practice in the science, education, and application

Clic Sargent, the Teenage Cancer Trust and the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust have announced a formal partnership to help the charities offer more support to young people with cancer. The collaboration will involve the sharing of resources and information, creating clear pathways to refer young people to each other’s services, and joint campaigning. While the

Comic Relief recorded a deficit of about £27m last year as it accelerated its grant-giving during the pandemic.  The grant-maker’s latest accounts, for the year to the end of July 2020, show total income at the poverty relief charity fell by £8m compared with the previous year, to £78m. This was largely because 2020 featured its

Grants totalling hundreds of millions of pounds to support heritage projects are being made available to UK good causes.  The National Lottery Heritage Fund has begun accepting applications to its flagship annual funding programme, which offers grants of up to £5m to support heritage schemes.  The programme, which runs until April 2022, typically hands out

A project to reclaim potentially millions of pounds in charitable funding from inactive trusts has been launched by the regulator in Scotland. The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator and Foundation Scotland said the initiative could unlock additional funding for charities and other community and voluntary groups from so-called “sleepy trusts” . The Revitalising Trusts

The chief executive of a global NGO who agreed to make payments to an armed group has left the organisation with immediate effect, it is understood.  Third Sector revealed last week that Nancy Wilson, the US-based head of Relief International, had been put on administrative leave after it emerged she had agreed to the use

A surge in memberships and donations resulted in total income at the conservation charity WWF-UK increasing by more than £14m last year, new figures show. Total income rose to £80.8m in the year to 30 June 2020, according to the charity’s latest accounts. This was driven mostly by income from individuals, which increased by more

Charity trading subsidiaries in Scotland might be able to claim charitable status after the conclusion of a four-year legal battle involving a heritage charity.  The New Lanark Trust is responsible for the former 18th century village in South Lanarkshire built around a cotton spinning mill, which is a Unesco World Heritage Site. Following a series of

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations will stop running its Funding Central online fund-finding service and wind down its “trusted charity” quality standard as part of its new strategy.  The umbrella body said today that it had drawn up its strategic priorities through a consultation involving more than 900 stakeholders and taking into consideration the