Civil Society News is bringing you a festive countdown in the run up to Christmas. On the first day, we look back at the top ten most read charity news stories from January to March.
It’s been a jolly busy year in the charity sector, from misuse of government grants to accusations of political campaigning. Here’s a look back at the ten most read news stories in the first three months of 2014.
1. Big Society Network charity uses government grant to cut its deficit without permission
In February it emerged that the Society Network Foundation used part of a restricted government grant to reduce a historical deficit of £180,000 that had been run up by its trading subsidiary, Big Society Network, without obtaining permission from the grant administrator, Social Investment Business. The Cabinet Office and Charity Commission decided to look into the matter.
In October the Commission said it would not take any action against the charity because it is in the process of winding itself up.
2. Save the Children faces accusations of being 'politically motivated'
Save the Children was certainly not the only large charity to be accused of being politically motivated this year, but it was the first, when on 8 January a Welsh MP criticised it for lobbying in Westminster.
David Davies, Conservative MP for Monmouth, objected to an invitation from Save the Children to a House of Lords reception on the education of children claiming that the event was an attack on the coalition government’s policies, and ignores the fact that the worst education results are in Wales, whose system is under control of the Labour controlled Welsh Assembly.
He told Civil Society News that the charity was “either unaware of the fact that education is a devolved matter and that the area with the worst PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) results in the UK is Wales and that the responsibility of that lies with the Welsh Assembly government or they are not interested in taking note of it because it doesn’t do their purpose politically”.
Save the Children said it was calling for action from all political parties.
3. Lloyds Bank Foundation signs new £20m a year deal with the bank
In January Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales (previously Lloyds TSB Foundation before the bank split apart at the insistence of the government) said it had signed a new deal with the bank for a nine-year rolling funding agreement that will see it invest around £20m per year for the foreseeable future.
Plans for two new programmes were announce at the beginning of the year. The Foundation announced plans for distributing at least £23m over the course of the year.
4. Daily Mail launches another attack on the pay of charity chief executives
Media outrage over charity chief executive pay might have felt ‘a bit 2013’, but in February the Daily Mail revived the debate with an article attacking the pay levels at Save the Children International and Marie Stopes.
Both charities paid their top earners more than £200,000 according to their 2012 accounts. Umbrella bodies criticised the media for a lack of context but said the sector needed to do more to explain why they need to pay high salaries.
A spokesman for Save the Children said Jasmine Whitbread's role was “comparable with the head of a major UN agency or senior director of the World Bank” and needed to be properly remunerated.
5. Javed Khan, CEO of Victim Support and later Barnardo's, is investigated over armed dispute in Pakistan, but is later cleared
At the end of January national newspapers reported that Javed Khan, who was then chief executive at Victim Support and who was set to move to Barnardo’s later in the year, had been involved in an armed dispute over property in Pakistan. This prompted the Charity Commission to contact his current employer.
Khan vehemently denied the allegations, and both charities launched separate investigations. Khan was cleared of any wrongdoing by both charities and joined Barnardo’s as planned in May.
6. Blue Cross chief executive Kim Hamilton resigns following accusations of impropriety in the national press
Animal charity Blue Cross had one of the worst starts to the new year after it emerged at an inquest into the death of one of its employees that she had been involved in relationships with both the chief executive and the director of fundraising.
The charity condemned the “speculative allegations” in the press. Kim Hamilton later resigned as chief executive. Blue Cross was also accused of paying staff £180,000 in compromise agreements to at least 6 members of staff.
Sally De a Bedoyere has since been appointed as chief executive.
7. Scope announces plans to close nearly a third of its care homes
In January Scope took the unpopular decision to close 11 of its 37 care homes. The move affected 190 disabled residents and 400 staff. Richard Hawkes, chief executive, said the charity had identified these 11 homes as those that provide the least opportunities for people to live independently, either because of the numbers of people housed in them or because of their physical location in remote areas.
In an interview with Civil Society News, Hawkes said: “Disabled people should be able to go to bed when they like, eat when they like, go out when they like, just like everyone else can. In the old charity world, in these care homes, everyone went to bed at the same time because that’s when a carer’s shift finished.
“I’m sure you still go into care homes today where what’s on the TV is driven by what the staff want to watch rather than what the resident wants to watch,” he added. “In the old charity world, the staff ‘cared for’ the beneficiaries. In the new charity world, our employees are there to enable disabled people to live the lives they want to lead.”
8. #nomakeupselfie trend raises £1m for CRUK in 24 hours
The origins of March’s #nomakeupselfie craze might have been a bit vague but that didn’t stop charities from encouraging people to take part, challenge their friends and donate.
Cancer Research UK was the biggest winner, raising £1m in the first 24 hours and £8m in the first week, but other cancer charities including Breast Cancer Campaign and Coppafeel benefited.
9. Plymouth Brethren trust registers as a charity after deal with the Charity Commission
After a long-running dispute lasting well over a year, the Charity Commission said in January it would accept the registration of the Preston Down Trust, a congregation of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, after the trust agreed to make amendments to its governing document.
The Commission had refused to register the Trust as a charity in June 2012, saying it was concerned the Trust was not “established for exclusively charitable purposes for the public benefit”.
The Trust initially applied for charitable status in 2009 as a test case for the Brethren, a religious group with around 16,000 members in the UK and more than 50,000 worldwide, who practice a strict doctrine of separation that does not allow them to eat, drink or socialise with non-members. The Brethren operate more than 100 charities in the UK, including gospel halls and schools.
10. Philanthropy is in a 'sorry state', Sir Ronnie Cohen tells charity leaders
In a lecture for the Lord Mayor’s Charity Leadership Programme, the founding chair of Big Society Capital, Sir Ronnie Cohen warned leaders that philanthropy was in a “sorry state”.
Cohen said that charitable organisations were “plagued by lack of scale”. Unsurprisingly his favoured solution to the issue was impact investment.
He said that he believed social investment could potentially offer “7 to 10 per cent returns” per annum, and could eventually be worth more worldwide than the $60bn microfinance movement.
Cohen said traditional philanthropy faced problems because it was focused on giving, not outcomes, because its timescales were too short, and because it did not care enough on growth.
“What is the common characteristic of the charitable social service providers who are the backbone of the social sector?” he said. “They are small and have no money.
“I have come to realise why we face this predicament. The primary reason is that traditional philanthropy has focused on the act of charitable giving rather than on achieving social outcomes.”
