Civil Society News is bringing you a festive countdown in the run-up to Christmas. On the eleventh day we look back at the ten most read news stories from October to December.
In the last quarter of the year we saw the dramatic collapse of BeatBullying, concern about change to VAT on direct mail and much more.
1. BeatBullying collapses after running out of money
The BB Group, which ran the BeatBullying and MindFull projects, ran into financial problems this year and its online mentoring services were taken offline at the end of October. It first announced it intendended to appoint an administrator on 20 October and did so on 7 November after rescue talks failed.
In a statement trustees said: “It is with sadness and regret we have to report that yesterday these negotiations failed and we have taken the difficult decision to put BBG into creditors’ voluntary liquidation.”
It emerged that the charity had lost out on major funding sources in 2013, made a number of staff redundant.
Documents released to creditors revealed that the charity narrowly missed out on grants worth £2.3m in the lead up to its collapse. The statement of affairs filed with Companies House shows that the charity owes £1m to creditors and can only afford to pay staff one fifth of the wages they are owed.
2. Electoral Commission tells charities to record when staff use Twitter to campaign
The Electoral Commission told charities that they must record every time an employee is encouraged to tweet or post to Facebook about a potentially political issue, to check whether they should register under the Lobbying Act.
The Commission said it will monitor charities’ social media activity, including employees using personal accounts, in order to check whether those charities are compliant with the Act.
Speaking at the annual Charity Law Association conference in October, Kate Engles, head of policy at the Electoral Commission, spoke of a “two-pronged gateway test” that charity campaigners should examine to determine whether a campaign can be classed as party political. She said campaigns that meet both a “purpose test” and a “public test” will meet regulation requirements under the new rules.
“An organisation that regularly communicates by more informal means like Twitter, Facebook or commercial mailing lists would still be seen as part of the public. And this is quite an important thing for campaigners to think about when they are planning their activities,” she said.
3. CFG board in the dark about reserves drop
CFG's trustees did not become aware that its reserves had plunged by nearly three-quarters until two months after the end of the financial year, Civil Society News learned in October.
And the drop was due partly to the correction of past accounting errors, but this was not disclosed in the trustees’ annual report.
The annual report for the year to 31 March 2014 stated that the fall in free reserves from just under £250,000 at the start of the year to £61,586 at the end was down to a deliberate decision by the board to invest in a restructure and office move.
But sources close to CFG have confirmed that the trustees did not even become aware of the true financial position for the year ended 31 March 2014 until they received an email from chief executive Caron Bradshaw in late May 2014 – almost two months after the year-end.
4. Save the Children faces backlash over call for it to revoke Tony Blair award
Save the Children International set about “urgently” containing reputational damage after more than 120,000 people (118,000 at the time of the original story) complained when Save the Children US gave Tony Blair an award for humanitarian work.
In an email leaked on social media, Jasmine Whitbread, chief executive of Save the Children International, said: “Urgently, right now, a team is trying hard to contain the situation and stop things escalating further, detracting from our wider work for children. The point has been made and more coverage of the issue will not help children.”
5. Charity Commission appoints interim manager at George Galloway charity
The Charity Commission froze the bank accounts of George Galloway’s charity Viva Palestina, and replaced trustees with an interim manager.
Viva Palestina, also known as Lifeline for Gaza, was set up in January 2009 to run aid convoys to Gaza, and claimed to have raised well over £1m. It has since run several aid convoys, one of which, in 2010, resulted in Galloway being deported from Egypt.
The Commission opened an inquiry into the charity in June 2013. The inquiry, which is still ongoing, is looking into “serious concerns relating to financial management, including a failure by the current and/or former trustees to account for charity funds since the inception of the charity”.
Helen Blundell of MHA Bloomer Heaven has been appointed as interim manager of the charity “to the exclusion of the Charity’s trustees as a temporary and protective measure”, the Commission said. She took over management of the charity on Monday 15 September.
6. Charity sector faces 20 per cent tax on direct mail
In October HMRC confirmed that charities which have “single sourcing” contracts for production and postage of their direct mail will have to pay 20 per cent VAT on those contracts from the start of the month. Charities and suppliers had previously believed these contracts should be zero-rated for VAT.
In December the Charity Tax Group and the Direct Marketing Association said that following discussions with HMRC, the taxman had agreed to delay this to April 2015. The two bodies said HMRC has also promised it will not take retrospective action to punish charities for previous positions so long as those positions were based on “genuine misunderstandings”.
7. Marie Curie merges four departments into one and recruits Mothercare executive to lead it
Marie Curie has today announced that it is merging its marketing, fundraising, communications, and policy and public affairs departments to create a new directorate.
Jude Bridge has been appointed to lead the new department and will take up the position in the new year. Her exact job title is yet to be confirmed.
As a result of the merger, the posts of director of fundraising and director of communications have been replaced by one divisional director, Marie Curie said.
Fabian French, former director of fundraising at Marie Curie, left the charity at the end of last month. Chris Dainty, director of comms, will leave at Christmas. Imelda Redmond, director of policy and public affairs, chose to quit the charity.
8. Charity removed from register after trustee spent thousands on holidays and dental treatments
This month the trustee of the Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Fund was jailed for 18 months after using charity funds to pay for dental treatment and holidays.
In October 2014, two of the charity’s trustees pleaded guilty to criminal offences. Martin Lawley, who had effectively been running the charity, admitted two counts of fraud by abuse of position and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. His wife Angela admitted aiding and abetting fraud by abuse of position and received a suspended sentence.
9. Fundraising leadership is ‘pale, stale and male’ conference hears
Fundraising is facing a leadership crisis and the sector must act now to address deep-rooted cultural problems in charities, delegates at the International Fundraising Congress in the Netherlands heard in October.
Speaking at a session called 'The emerging fundraising leadership challenge', Tony Elischer, managing director of Think Consulting Solutions, said sector leaders were “pale, stale and male”, calling it “shameful at every level”.
Find out who the directors of fundraising are at the top 100 fundraising charities and what their priorities are for 2015 in the January edition of Fundraising Magazine. Subscribe here.
10. Cancer Research UK crowdfunding effort flops
Cancer Research UK’s three new crowdfunding campaigns did not manage to raise even 10 per cent of the money the projects needed.
Last month CRUK posted three research projects on crowdfunding platform Indiegogo in a bid to raise a total of £190,000 by last week. It was the first time that the charity had hoped to fund projects entirely through crowdfunding.
But just £12,447 was pledged across the three campaigns, by 338 donors.
Elsewhere, Kids Company is three-quarters of the way to its £100,000 using Crowdfunder to pay for a community Christmas party on 25 December. The charity will receive all the money pledged to its 'Give the gift of Christmas' campaign by 24 December.
