A fundraising consultant has resigned from Action Planning after The Times published detailed allegations of sexual harassment in the sector.
Bill Giles, who was expelled from the Chartered Institute of Fundraising (CIoF) last year, was named by The Times on Saturday.
He had been an associate consultant at Action Planning, but he and the consultancy firm parted ways after the article was published.
Action Planning stated it was “concerned to read the detailed allegations” against one of its associate consultants.
Its statement reads: “Action Planning has been trusted by the not-for-profit sector for more than thirty years, seeks to uphold the highest standards of ethics on behalf of our clients and requires our consultants to conduct themselves accordingly.
“While the allegations were unrelated to our clients, Action Planning has now accepted the resignation of fundraising consultant Bill Giles.”
According to The Times, Giles has denied allegations referred to in its article.
CIoF: Behaviour ‘utterly condemned’
Nadine Campbell chair of CIoF, wrote in response: “I know it will have been upsetting and caused anger to read the details of the incidents and I’m sure your thoughts, like mine, will be with the women who have experienced completely unacceptable behaviour.
“In our statement to the Times we made it clear that this has no place in the fundraising profession, and that any such behaviour is utterly condemned.”
The CIoF announced last year that it had commissioned an independent review into its failure to respond appropriately to complaints of sexual harassment.
It had previously commissioned an investigation into a complaint that the former chief executive, Peter Lewis, and the CIoF did not act on an allegation of sexual harassment in 2014.
The board apologised for the wording of the statement made in June 2021, which found that there was “no wrongdoing by Peter Lewis”.
Michele Welch, head of professional conduct at the CIoF, recently wrote a blog explaining the CIoF is now a member of the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme.
This aims to help enable organisations to share relevant information about individuals who have been found to have committed sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, or sexual abuse in the course of their employment or under the terms of their position.
It is currently implemented by over 150 organisations. Currently, more than 29,000 checks have been conducted, resulting in over 140 applications being rejected at the final stage of recruitment.
Action Planning statement
A spokesperson for Action Planning said: “We received a phone call in May this year which alerted us that the Chartered Institute of Fundraising’s dismissal of Bill Giles, one of the many associate fundraising consultants with whom we have worked, however no detail was given as to the reason for his dismissal.
“We immediately removed any reference to his membership of the CIOF on our website. We sought to obtain more information about the allegations, and were given to understand that CIOF would be in contact with us. We realise now that the error we made was not having made a formal request. As a result, we had no clear understanding of what had happened or evidence to justify terminating Bill Giles’s associate consulting agreement with Action Planning.
“It wasn’t until the Times article of the 15th October regarding the Institute of Fundraising that we became aware of the details of the rationale for his dismissal. We contacted Bill about this on Saturday morning and accepted his resignation on Sunday afternoon.
“Action Planning in no way condones any form of harassment. We have been trusted by the not-for-profit sector for more than thirty years, and seek to uphold the highest standards of ethics on behalf of our clients and require our consultants to conduct themselves accordingly.”
Editor's Note: An additional statement from Action Planning was added to this piece after publication
