Clarity for charity complaints

Governance | Dorothy Dalton | 1 Aug 2008

The Charity Commission receives around 2,000 complaints about charities a year; these are wide-ranging but their remit means they can only look into specific types of issues. To explain the process more clearly, the Charity Commission recently published revised guidance.

Complaints about charities (CC47) covering their proportionate approach, identifying what they can, and can’t, look into and signposting other organisations who may be able to help with complaints they can’t pursue.

The Commission also often receives complaints about internal disputes within charities and their new guidance to trustees, Conflicts in your charity, explains it is usually trustees’ responsibility to resolve these. Only rarely can the Commission become involved.

Complaints about charities (CC47) specifies the Commission will take up complaints where they decide that there is a serious risk of harm to or abuse of a charity, its assets, beneficiaries or reputation, and they consider that their intervention is necessary to protect them.

The issues they consider serious include:

significant financial loss to a charity
serious harm to beneficiaries, particularly vulnerable beneficiaries
sham charities
threats to national security, particularly terrorism
deliberate use of a charity for private gain

Directory: Charity Commission

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