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Two children's charities under fire from Charity Commission

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 26 Feb 2009

The Charity Commission has released damning results of investigations into two so-called children’s welfare charities prompted by public complaints regarding their governance and behaviour.

A report published this week reveals that the Commission found a complete lack of charitable expenditure by the Children’s Welfare Foundation during their investigation, which began in January last year after complaints by various trading standards departments and members of the public about unauthorised and unlicensed clothing collections.

Inquiries discovered that the ‘charity’ hired a clothing collection company called Fortune which failed to comply with fundraising guidelines when requesting donations, and the Children’s Welfare Foundation, which received £600 from Fortune each month regardless of how may clothes were donated, failed to take any professional advice before entering the agreement or monitoring its progress.

The Commission also reports that trustees never produced accounts to the Commission and were unable to account for payments to themselves which they claimed had been for ‘expenses’. The regulator also reported that the trustees had been uncooperative during the investigation into their charity’s activities and accounts.

The foundation was removed from the charities register in October 2008 and given the Commission says its only recourse now is to monitor any activity taken out in the future on behalf of the defunct organisation.

Andrew Hind, chief executive of the Commission, said that members of the public “should notify their local police or trading standards” if they receive any material claiming to come from the Children’s Welfare Foundation.

World Children’s Fund

This latest report follows a separate inquiry into the World Children’s Fund, prompted by ongoing complaints about the emotive tone of its literature.

The investigation was re-opened last year after the charity failed to improve its fundraising materials and because of concerns over the fund’s relationship to a Swiss charity, the World Children’s Fund Europe, to which the UK-based fund was required to send money to without any control over how it is spent.

The Commission, which judged the charity’s messages as “emotive” and to contain either misleading or false statements, has now referred the case to the Advertising Standards Authority which is investigating.

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