The GuideStar public website, which was set up with £2.9m of public money in 2004, may soon cease to be free if its new private sector owner deems it uneconomical to support.
In the latest development in the long-running saga of GuideStar’s ownership, Wilmington Group plc announced on Friday that it has acquired the assets of GuideStar Data Services CIC (GDS), including the free-to-access public website and the database of financial information about charities, from the administrators Maidment Judd. No price was disclosed.
GDS had been placed into administration by the Directory of Social Change, which had acquired it back in March.
Polly Avgherinos from Wilmington Group explained that while Wilmington had acquired “the website, meaning the html pages, and the database that powers the website”, the GuideStar brand remained part of GuideStar International.
Avgherinos said Wilmington already runs a free online service for charities called CharitiesDirect, and the company would now be examining the GuideStar data in detail to see if it can augment the CharitiesDirect service.
“It’s very early days, we need to have a good look at the data and get to grips with what’s there, and what the quality is,” she said.
However, Wilmington also provides various subscription products and Avgherinos admitted that it would only keep the free information service alive if it made financial sense to do so.
“We hope we can continue to offer it as a free resource but it needs to work for us,” she said.
Because Wilmington only acquired the assets of GDS and not the actual Community Interest Company, it is under no obligation to continue to run it for the public good.
Avgherinos also said Wilmington was not obliged to take on any of GuideStar’s former contracts, such as its OPSI licence with the Charity Commission which covers the transfer of data from the Commission. But she said the company would look at those too, as Wilmington also already has an OPSI licence with the Commission.
Wilmington statement at odds with GuideStar International
However, Friday’s announcement from Wilmington seemed to be at odds with a statement from GuideStar International a month ago that that it had reassumed ownership of the public website from the Directory of Social Change.
When told about Wilmington’s announcement on Friday, GuideStar International was still under the impression that it owned the free public website, not Wilmington. But on the weekend it issued a statement saying: “GuideStar International’s goal throughout this process has been to look for ways to keep this service available. We’re continuing to work with all parties towards that goal. Our mission is to illuminate civil society and our priority is that the data remains open and available to the sector.”
Administrator Anthony Kent at Maidment Judd refused to clarify the situation about ownership of the GuideStar website, referring all enquiries to GuideStar International and Wilmington.
A Charity Commission spokeswoman said: "The Charity Commission continues to supply GuideStar with a weekly feed from the Public Register including copies of charities' accounts and SIRs. The Commission charges GuideStar the cost of providing this service.
"Following the change of ownership of GuideStar, the Commission will be looking to meet with the new owner, Wilmington Group, to establish the details of the new ownership arrangements and to establish what implications they might have for the Commission's data supply contract."
Graham Leigh leaves Directory of Social Change
The Wilmington acquisition coincides with the announcement that Graham Leigh, who was in charge of the GuideStar business at DSC, is to join Skills Third Sector as director of strategic partnerships on 1 December.
