The Fundraising Regulator has found a libraries charity breached its code by failing to have a complaints policy after investigating a concern raised regarding a high-profile £7.5m donation it received in 2021.
However, the regulator found that the charity had not broken its code in relation to the due diligence it carried out when accepting the donation from a source the complainant viewed as controversial.
The Friends of the Nations’ Libraries received a donation of £7.5m in November 2021 from the Blavatnik Family Foundation, founded by Ukrainian-born, British-American businessman and philanthropist Leonard Blavatnik.
The charity had been carrying out a fundraising campaign aiming to raise £15m in order to buy a valuable collection of historically significant books and manuscripts from prominent British authors, including Jane Austen.
As part of its campaign, the charity had contacted the Blavatnik Family Foundation, which had agreed to donate half the money, and subsequently named the collection the Blavatnik Honresfield Library.
The Fundraising Regulator reported that the complainant first contacted the Friends of the Nation’s Libraries in March 2022 to express concern over the £7.5m donation, after the collection had already been purchased.
The charity reportedly told the complainant that it had carried out due diligence on all large donations. When the complainant asked for more information on these checks, they received no reply, which led to the complainant contacting the regulator.
Ethics committee set up
After investigating, the Fundraising Regulator found that the charity could explain the due diligence steps it had taken, including forming a committee to review the donation, but it was unable to provide any note or record of the due diligence performed before accepting the donation.
The high-profile nature of the fundraising campaign and the widely publicised reporting of the donation made sure the decision was transparent, said the regulator, which found no code breach in relation to carrying out due diligence.
However, the regulator did identify one breach of the code by the charity, as it uncovered that the charity had no complaints policy.
The charity said this was because it had no staff resources and no permanent employees, relying largely on volunteers, and did not often carry out fundraising.
The Friends of the Nation’s Libraries has since set up an ethics committee to review any donations worth more than £20,000, the regulator said, and it has put an appropriate complaints policy in place.
The regulator said it was satisfied that the charity had taken the opportunity to learn from the complaint and strengthen its processes.
The Friends of the Nation’s Libraries has been contacted for comment.
Editor's note: The headline and copy of this article have been updated to emphasise that the Fundraising Regulator found no code breach in relation to the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries’ due diligence regarding the donation.
