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Grantmaking trust paid school fees of trustees' relatives

Governance | Tania Mason | 3 Mar 2010

The Charity Commission is looking into a charitable trust whose published accounts declare that it paid for the school fees of the trustees’ grandchildren.

Over the last six financial years, the Rosalyn & Nicholas Springer Charitable Trust has made payments totalling £125,751 for school fees for the grandchildren of Mr and Mrs Springer.

The accounts for all six years up to 5 April 2009, five of which are published on the Charity Commission website, state that “the trustees have made payment for the relief of poverty to pay the school fees of the two/three grandchildren of Mr and Mrs Springer”.  These payments were “approved by the independent trustee”, the reports add.

Mr Nicholas Springer and Mrs Rosalyn Springer are two of the charity’s three trustees. The Trust, which was set up in April 1997, has as its objects: “to provide relief and assistance to those in need, for the advancement of education, religion or for other purposes beneficial to the community”.

The latest accounts state that during the year to April 2009, the Trust had total income from donations and bank interest of £118,900, though it does not divulge the source of the donations. It made donations totalling £142,797 to 59 charities, amounts ranging from £100 to £38,500.

The accounts state that it is the policy of the trustees to distribute the whole of the annual income, as “there are no overhead costs for the charity”.

The document goes on to say: “As referred to in the trustees’ report, during the year £38,524 was paid for the payment of school fees for the three grandchildren of Mr and Mrs Springer (2008: £35,739).”

The detailed schedule of donations states that £14,868.17 was paid to University College School and £23,656.08 to North London Collegiate (pictured).

The Charity Commission said it would contact the trustees to get more information and ascertain whether further action is required.

Springer: ‘We took advice’

Nicholas Springer denied any wrongdoing.  He told Civil Society that the trustees “took advice from counsel” regarding the donations “and I believe it is all in order”.

The Commission’s guidance on conflicts of interest is as follows: “The law states that trustees cannot receive any benefit from their charity in return for any service they provide to the charity unless they have express legal authority to do so. ‘Benefit’ includes any property, goods or services which have a monetary value, as well as money.”

It goes on: “The rule that a trustee cannot receive any benefit from his or her charity without explicit authority is based on the principle that trustees should not be in a position where their personal interests and their duty to the charity conflict, unless the possibility of personal benefit from which the conflict of interest arises is transparent.”

A Charity Commission spokeswoman defended the Commission’s habit of publishing charity accounts on its website without checking them, and denied this implied endorsement or approval of the accounts.

“With approximately 70,000 sets of accounts filed with the Commission each year, it would not be viable for the Commission to scrutinise each set,” she said. “However, where concerns are brought to us about a charity’s accounts, we will of course consider them.”

Mr Nicholas Springer is also a trustee of the Royal Masonic Trust for Boys and Girls.

• Read Dorothy Dalton's blog about this story.

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