Civil Society News is bringing you a festive countdown in the run-up to Christmas. On the seventh day we look at some examples of the heightened media scrutiny that the sector has received this year.
The charity sector faced its fair share of criticism in 2014, with not all of it being entirely justified. In no particular order, we look at six of the most memorable examples.
1. Newspaper “exposes abuse of charity” by abusing food bank charity
In April the Mail on Sunday reported that food bank charities such as the Trussell Trust were being abused.
A reporter for the Mail on Sunday set out to prove this by obtaining food vouchers from Nottingham Citizens Advice Bureau by claiming to be unemployed.
The article claimed its reporter got three days of groceries “no questions asked”, while also stating that "a member of staff at the food bank asked the reporter a series of questions about why the food bank vouchers were needed”.
The article, which came out days after the Trussell Trust released a report highlighting a shocking rise in demand for food packages, was met by a wave of criticism on social media, leading to a huge surge of donations onto the campaign’s JustGiving site and raising £500,000 in two days.
2. Attacks on Muslim charities
The Muslim Charities Forum said it was “shocked and dismayed” after an article in The Daily Telegraph in September alleged that the umbrella body had links to terrorist organisation including the “Muslim Brotherhood”.
The MCF responded saying that none of its members were terrorists and that it would be taking legal advice over the allegations.
The Times was the next newspaper to criticise Muslim charities, with an opinion piece that called for more transparency around the Charity Commission’s investigation into potential terrorists organisations, giving the impression that it thought chair William Shawcross needed to take a firmer stance.
This blog post looked at the recent criticism Muslim charities have received in more detail.
3. Attacks on charity chief executive pay
The Daily Mail attacked the level of chief executive pay at Save the Children International and Marie Stopes International in February.
The article followed criticism published last year in a series of articles in the paper, and in The Daily Telegraph, which focused on the 14 international aid charities that make up the Disasters Emergency Committee.
The Mail article said the latest figures had resulted in “fresh demands to curb the salaries of fat cat bosses” from Priti Patel, Conservative MP for Witham and Charlie Elphicke, Conservative MP for Dover and Deal.
Chief executive pay made headlines again when the Belfast Telegraph looked at the charities in Northern Ireland and found that 34 paid their chief executive, or most senior representative in Northern Ireland, more than £50,000.
This was then followed by a Jewish Chronicle investigation which found that a dozen Jewish charities pay their chief executives more than £100,000 each.
4. Channel 4 Dispatches investigates telephone fundraising
Undercover reporters for Channel 4 Dispatches reported that they had found potential breaches of sector regulations by telephone fundraising agencies.
The programme, which was broadcast in August, featured NTT Fundraising in Bristol and London-based Pell & Bales and claimed that telephone fundraisers were told to lie to boost donations.
NTT hit back at the investigation, stating that they do not make nuisance calls and claiming that a reporter “deliberately set up junior members of staff to say things about aspects that they were not trained in, that could be used out of context”.
Dispatches responded saying its reporter “utterly refuted the very serious allegation that he ‘set up’ junior members of staff”. Dispatches added that this would be a serious breach of his trade and of Ofcom regulations.
NTT’s blog following the programme can be seen here, while Channel 4’s response to NTT’s allegations can be seen here.
5. Children in Need attacked over investment portfolio
The Daily Mail criticised Children in Need in October for holding almost £90m of charity money in bank accounts and investment portfolios. The charity responding by saying that the reserve is a result of its grantmaking strategy of releasing funds slowly over a period of three years. It added that this was to ensure that projects continue to comply to the terms and conditions of the grant.
The figures were taken from the charity’s accounts, which had been filed with the Charity Commission almost a year before.
6. The fall-out from Panorama continues
Although BBC Panorama’s programme on charities’ pay and investments actually happened in December 2013, the fall-out continued into the following year.
The programme, ‘All in a good cause’ examined and criticised three main charities. Save the Children were attacked over allegations it censored criticism of the energy industry out of fear of upsetting corporate partners.
Comic Relief was also exposed by Panorama for holding investments in weapons and tobacco industry shares. While Amnesty International were criticised over the £750,000 loss incurred by the charity when organising its 2012 Secret Policeman’s Ball.
