The Charity Employees Benevolent Fund (CEBF) has established an advisory council to raise the profile of the fund.

It will meet two times a year with the intention of providing support and strategic direction to the staff and trustees.

Michael Lake was announced as the chairman of the council last year and has now been joined by Andrew Hind (editor of Charity Finance and former CEO of the Charity Commission), Stephen Lloyd (senior partner at Bates Wells & Braithwaite) as well as senior figures from Acevo, the Charity Finance Directors’ Group (CFDG), Action Planning and the Community Foundation Network.

Lake said: “It is a strange anomaly that the charitable sector has not previously had a fund to support the many low-paid employees who work within it and fall on hard times. I am pleased to work with the CEBF trustees to steer this essential fund to a secure future.”

CEBF trustee and former CEO of the Charities Aid Foundation, Michael Brophy, came up with the idea for an advisory council and said: “We are looking to the umbrella organisations to encourage their members to support CEBF and to sector leaders to show the way.”

The CEBF is a benevolent fund for the charity sector which was set up in 2009 to support charity employees who have fallen on hard times.