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Finance | Ian Allsop | 1 Oct 2005

It is possible to detect a desire in the sector for GuideStar to fail. Certainly the fact that a large chunk of government money has been spent to provide information that was already available elsewhere has provoked some amount of negativity to the much heralded online information resource. Each delay and problem has caused sniggering at the back of the class. Problems with the site during its preview stage last month were again picked up on with some glee, even though the whole point of testing is to iron out any such creases.

Admittedly, Charity Finance has itself expressed some concern about the whole project but the demonstration site that the press viewed over the summer was certainly impressive. It looks good, is easy to navigate and contains a wealth of accessible information. The hope is that the resource will be used by the public looking for information on charities, and the fact that charities can add their own comments and explanations to the statutory information is seen as a great strength.

However, it is hard to escape that feeling of duplication. More so especially now that the Charity Commission has made available scanned-in versions of the annual report and accounts of charities with income over £25,000 on its website, over a quarter of all registered organisations.

Wherever the public gets the information we are told it craves, the importance of it being up to date is paramount. Consider the wise words of the Daily Mirror. One of its opinion columns recently counselled anyone thinking of donating hard earned cash to charity to avoid the "so called good causes that won't tell you where your money goes, as latest figures show that 6 per cent of charities registered in the UK are too disorganised, too lazy or too worried about investigation to file their accounts with the Charity Commission".

Now that the money has been spent on GuideStar, and it is nearly with us, it might be better to concentrate on the positives that can be got out of it rather than carping. The onus will be on charities to use it constructively to raise awareness of what they do and justify any costs. Equally, they have a responsibility to file accounts on time to the Charity Commission, so that its website is as up to date as the information repeated on GuideStar.

When the levy breaks

There is considerable confusion and uncertainty over how charities running defined benefit pension schemes will be assessed for credit risk under the levy scheme for the Pension Protection Fund. There are very real concerns that they could end up paying unfair fees because their capital structure and low reserves (in most cases) mean they will receive poor credit ratings.

This issue clearly needs to be addressed by the sector and by actuaries and pensions advisers working with charities. It was striking that at a recent event on pensions aimed at charities the experts themselves had no more idea of what charities should do than the charities did. Hardly reassuring.

However, one of the many things that the sector does well is to form working parties to make a noise and it is hoped that the one that has convened over the summer can draw attention to what is probably once again an unintended consequence upon charities of well meaning actions elsewhere. There are potential problems with the whole levy scheme and experts have a number of serious concerns about it. But having charities paying their own money to essentially support weak schemes in the commercial sector is a major issue and surely cannot be allowed.

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