Date updated: Thursday 2nd August 2018
Welcome to the July edition of Charity Essentials. In this edition we discuss our new initiative on charity borrowing and planned round-table event – we would like to hear from charities and social enterprises who have or plan to take out borrowing from a bank or similar financial institution. Sean Knight considers the wider lessons that charities can learn from the Charity Commission’s report on The Presidents Club. There is information about the new ‘Your Data Matters’ scheme from the ICO and various other news items that may be of interest to charities.
As always, if you have any suggestions for content or improvements, please do get in touch, we really value your feedback!
Borrowed money from the bank or in the process of doing so?
We would be delighted to hear from charities and social enterprises who have or plan to take out borrowing from a bank or similar financial institution.
We have been working with banks and social lenders to consider improving the process by which charities and social enterprises borrow money to further their objectives. We have already had a first meeting with them - a round table discussion to share experiences and to discuss how things could be improved. We are aware, however, that there are always two sides to any story and that the frustrations that banks say that they experience will be matched by some charities and social enterprises that have borrowed or wish to borrow from banks and similar financial institutions.
The Presidents Club Case report - lessons for charity trustees
The Presidents Club Charitable Trust (the “Presidents Club”) is a grant-making charity that raised its income from hosting an annual ticketed dinner at which a number of auctions were held. As has been widely publicised, allegations of harassment of female staff emerged from the male-only event held at the Dorchester Hotel on 18 January 2018.
In its case report, the Charity Commission (the “Commission”) makes it clear what its role as a statutory regulator encompasses, namely, to ensure that charity trustees comply with their legal duties and responsibilities in managing their charity – it is not responsible for dealing with incidents of abuse. “The essential trustee: what you need to know, what you need to do” (“CC3”), sets out the duties of all charity trustees, and the Commission’s case report on the Presidents Club reemphasises the importance of charity trustees being aware of their responsibilities and acting in accordance with them.
NCVO: Draft Code of Ethics for charities published
The NCVO have published a draft Code of Ethics which aims to support charities and their trustees, staff and volunteers in recognising and resolving ethical issues and conflicts. NCVO says that whilst many charities have their own codes of behaviour, this code aims to provide an overarching set of principles that reflects the values shared across the charity sector.
Information Commissioner launches 'Your Data Matters' Campaign
We know that our charity clients have been working hard over the past months (years?) to ensure compliance with GDPR and new data protection legislation!
Report into sexual exploitation and abuse in the aid sector published
The International Development Committee has published its report into sexual exploitation and abuse in the aid sector. The report concludes that NGOs may have created new policies and procedures but have not successfully implemented them, and where initiatives have been developed, these have been continually underfunded. The report says that this leaves the overall impression of ‘complacency, verging on complicity’. The report should act as a wake-up call for charities, whether working in the aid sector or in the UK, that safeguarding needs to be at the heart of an organisation’s culture.
Charity Commission updates safeguarding duties for charity trustees guidance
The Charity Commission has added information on the disqualification of trustees to its guidance of safeguarding duties for charity trustees. The added rules on disqualification mean that individuals cannot act as a trustee or a senior manager of a charity for a range of reasons, including being on the sex offenders register, unless they have a waiver from the Charity Commission.
Charity Commission – changes to the update charity details service
Later this summer the improved update charity details service will go live. GDPR means that the Commission will need to let people know if any of their personal information is updated on the register of charities. The simplest and quickest way of doing this is to email people when their data is updated.
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