Charity cleared of wrongdoing over failed fundraising campaign

Governance | Gareth Jones | 9 Sep 2010

The Sick Kids Friends Foundation, the charity behind the failed New Pyjamas Campaign, has been cleared of any misconduct by an OSCR inquiry but has been given recommendations to strengthen its governance.

The campaign attracted controversy after reports suggesting that it had it had spent £500,000 yet raised just £60,000 in ten months, but OSCR found that the trustees had sought professional advice in determining the campaign strategy.

However, while trustees did constantly review income and expenditure and their questions to the campaign management team received apparently reasonable responses, “further exploration of the underlying issues should have resulted in the charity trustees having a better understanding of the true position and the likelihood of projections being achieved at an earlier stage”.

OSCR has told the charity to review its constitution, and also its two-tier governance structure to ensure clear lines of authority are in place, as well as putting in place a robust written feedback mechanism to ensure that there is no doubt that concerns raised by staff have been responded to.

A spokesman for the charity said the report’s governance recommendations are already being implemented.

Directory: Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR)

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.