Charity

A London-based charity has apologised afer it was found to have perpetuated a long-term culture of institutional racism that led to African and Caribbean communities feeling excluded, discriminated against, and disenfranchised.  The Westway Trust was set up to manage 23 acres of land under the Westway elevated dual carriageway of the A40 in west London after

Three charities have been forced to close by the regulator in Northern Ireland after a “god-ordained” trustee made payments called “love offerings”, and loaned himself £15,000 of charitable funds to cover personal car financing. The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland says in a statutory inquiry report published this week that Glenn Dunlop was the founder

In the Third Sector Podcast’s second weekly episode, editor Emily Burt and features and analysis writer Rebecca Cooney look at Kids Company. When Kids Company collapsed in 2015, it sent shockwaves through the charity sector. Camila Batmanghelijdh, the founder and former chief executive of the now defunct children’s charity, along with former trustees of the

The Northern Ireland charity regulator is facing an independent review of its performance after a report found concerns with how it had handled complaints from a member of the public. In a written question in the Northern Ireland Assembly, Traditional Unionist Voice party leader Jim Allister asked the communities minister, Carál Ní Chuilín, what action

A former trustee at defunct charity Kids Company advised his 900,000 peers across the sector to resign if it is assumed they must ensure the solvency of their charities. Vincent O’Brien, who had been a trustee at the charity since 2007, was being cross-examined by defence teams at the High Court yesterday in a session

The sanitation charity WaterAid International has appointed Andrew McCracken as its next global director. McCracken, who has spent the past six years as chief executive of the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland, was previously global fundraising director at the development charity Tearfund. He succeeds Ken Caldwell, who retired in April. McCracken is a board member

Save the Children UK has promised that people of colour will make up at least a quarter of its senior management team by the end of 2021 as part of a drive to make it an anti-racist organisation.  A strategy document called Free to be Me, and published today, says the 101-year-old charity had, in some

The latest version of the Charity Governance Code has been published, with updated guidance on equality, diversity and inclusion.  The code, which sets out seven principles of good governance practice for charity trustees, was first published in its current form in 2017, replacing the Code of Good Governance.  The latest version, published today, has been

The founder of a rehabilitation charity has been disqualified from senior positions after she was paid tens of thousands of pounds in unauthorised payments and almost £300,000 went to a company of which she was a director.  The Charity Commission said it had also secured a disqualification order against a former manager of the Livingstone

The vice-president of children’s charity Barnardo’s has hit back at a group of Conservative MPs who dismissed the charity’s talk about white privilege as “ideological dogma”. The charity faced a flood of racist comments after it began tweeting about white privilege and what could be done to tackle it and create a fairer society following

Fewer than three in 10 charity leaders believe the government will value their expertise when it comes to future crisis planning, a new survey suggests. A poll of UK charity chief executives conducted by the Charities Aid Foundation found 29 per cent thought their expertise would be seen as an important resource when it came

The lobbying act must go so charities can speak truth to power and collaborate with the government for the common good, according to a senior opposition MP. Rachel Reeves, Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, was speaking at the launch of the Law Family Commission on Civil Society, hosted by the research charity Pro

Charities should be given a special VAT rate on purchases in order to reduce the almost £2bn a year burden faced by the sector, a new report suggests. Research commissioned by the Charity Tax Group shows that irrecoverable VAT costs charities £1.8bn a year, part of a total tax contribution made by UK charities of

Slightly more than 40 per cent of community organisations are expecting to have lost at least one-quarter of their income in the second half of this year, according to new research. A new report, called The Power of our Network and published by community membership body Locality, highlights how locally rooted organisations have remained agile and resilient

The Charity Commission is looking into reports that a charity set up by the Daily Mail newspaper to buy PPE for NHS staff donated 100,000 face masks suspected of being made in a Chinese forced labour camp. The newspaper and its owner, Daily Mail and General Trust, launched the Mail Force charity  in April this

The defunct charity Kids Company was a “victim of its own success”, the High Court heard today. The former BBC executive Alan Yentob, who chaired Kids Company for 18 years until its collapse in 2015, became visibly upset during the hearing as he made an impassioned defence of the charity and its founder and former

The Third Sector Podcast has gone weekly, and in its first episode, editor Emily Burt and features and analysis writer Rebecca Cooney ask: “What gives with Giving Tuesday?” Giving Tuesday is celebrated five days after the US festival of Thanksgiving and was launched on the other side of the Atlantic in 2012 as a reaction

The disability charity Deafblind UK has sold its former headquarters for £2.5m and plans to reinvest the resulting funds in its services.  The offices in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, also acted as a conferencing centre that provided about £100,000 a year to the charity, but had been dormant during the pandemic.  The building was sold last month

The defunct charity Kids Company had nothing to hide from the government, its former chair has told the High Court.  The TV presenter and former BBC executive Alan Yentob, in a dark suit jacket and light blue-and-white striped shirt, often looked exasperated as Lesley Anderson QC, on behalf of the Official Receiver, questioned him yesterday

The number of charitable gifts in wills could be as much as 50 per cent higher next year than in 2020 because of a record-breaking death rate and a backlog of existing bequests, experts have predicted. A new paper from the legacy consortium Legacy Foresight said the total number of deaths in the UK could

A new £1m fund being delivered by the learning disability charity Mencap will help support 60 partner organisations to develop digital strategies and move their services online. The money has been donated by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and the Pears Foundation to help the charity and its network of partners improve access

The culture secretary has promised to “unleash” the potential of civil society as he defended his government’s attitude to the sector. Oliver Dowden was speaking at the virtual launch of the Law Family Commission on Civil Society, hosted by the research charity Pro Bono Economics. The commission is a two-year initiative that aims to examine

The value of charitable work in the UK is undervalued by about £160bn, according to a new report. The paper, called Civil Action, was published today by the research charity Pro Bono Economics, to mark the start of its Law Family Commission on Civil Society. The commission is a two-year initiative that aims to examine

Almost three-quarters of people in Britain say they will make a charitable donation this Christmas, according to new research.  Survey data from almost 140,000 people collated by the insurance company Ecclesiastical indicates that 72 per cent of those polled said they would make a gift to charity over the festive period.  It showed that 84

Reduced capacity and tighter restrictions in the financial industry has created a “banking blackout” that has left many small charities locked out of their accounts or unable to open a new one, organisations have told Third Sector.  Concerns have been raised by charitable groups and membership bodies that smaller organisations that might have been inactive

Becky Hewitt is to step down as chief executive of the disfigurement charity Changing Faces to allow someone with more specialist health experience to take over.  Hewitt, who has been in the role since September 2017, said she had loved her time at the charity but the coronavirus pandemic had caused the organisation to think

The RSPCA has promoted John Kerslake to be its chief operating officer and deputy chief executive.  Kerslake, who joined the animal charity in January as director of field operations, took up the new positions earlier this month.  Before joining the RSPCA, Kerslake was chief operations officer at the National Citizen Service.  Prior to that, he worked in

The latest episode of the Third Sector Podcast looks at job hunting in the charity sector. In August, Pro Bono Economics’ Charity Sector Tracker found that almost 60,000 voluntary sector jobs could be lost by the end of the year, as a result of the coronavirus crisis.  Each week, new charities are announcing redundancies and

The animal charities RSPCA and Blue Cross are planning to work together more closely in a range of areas to save money.  The organisations said key areas being explored included purchasing and supplies, where they believed economies of scale savings could be found, and in the transport of animals and behaviour services.  The charities said

Twelve charities will receive a share of £15m in funding to help ensure support for the most vulnerable women and girls can continue during the coronavirus pandemic, the government has said.  The money is being distributed from the latest round of the Tampon Tax Fund, which uses money generated from the VAT on sanitary products.