There may be “commercial opportunities” for professional advisers to the charity sector as the Charity Commission begins to scale back its direct assistance to charities, the Commission has said.
David Locke, executive director of charity services at the Charity Commission (pictured), told an audience of independent and professional advisers to the sector earlier this week that the Commission's new strategy would see the end of its “slightly paternalistic relationship” with the sector, especially with smaller charities.
Locke, who was speaking at the Association of Charity Independent Examiners' (ACIE) annual conference, said charities would come to rely more heavily on professional advisers.
“It is likely to mean that charities will come more heavily reliant on professional advisers, such as yourselves,” he told the audience. “And it would be naïve of me not to recognise that there may be commercial opportunities here for some of you.
“But, at the same time, I am acutely aware that many of you provide services to charities at no charge or in return for very modest fees. That makes you, as I mentioned at the start – unsung heroes of the charitable sector.”
Earlier in the year, the Charity Commission announced it would reduce its one-to-one advice to charities and its interventions in individual cases, as it focuses on its key regulatory priorities in light of a 30 per cent budget cut over the next spending period.
Locke has decided to leave the Commission at the end of the current financial year (March 2012) rather than seek a smaller role in the restructured organisation.
At the conference, Locke expanded on the Commission’s changing role:
“In the past, our approach has been to reject very few applications for registration,” he said. “We’ve tended to work with the people making the application to make the necessary improvements to get the charity on the register.
“It is perhaps for this reason that only 8 per cent of organisations applying to register as a charity use the help of professional advisers. This will be changing. We are clear that the onus is on the organisation making an application to get it right. If it isn’t, we’ll reject it.”
He said that if a charity believed the Commission had wrongly rejected an application, they would have to request a decision review or appeal to the Charity Tribunal.
100 per cent of new registrations online during May
Locke also said the Charity Commission’s efforts to drive people to the website, instead of phoning or emailing the Charity Commission first, were proving successful.
In May of this year, all new registrations with the Charity Commission were done online:
“In the 2010/11 financial year 88 per cent of charity registrations were done online,” he said. “That’s up from 50 per cent in the previous year, and in May this year 100 per cent were done in this way.”
“That’s great, but we need to do even more to ensure that trustee and charity advisers check our website first, before getting in touch by phone or email.”
Locke said if a charity needed permission for something, such as requiring the power to do something it currently cannot do – for example, to sell land – it would need to apply online using a new electronic form.
“The onus will be on the charity to provide all the evidence and to make the case for the exercise of such a power,” he said. “We will not engage in protracted correspondence. If the case is not made, we will reject.”
