Greed might work for Wall Street but it is not an attractive, nor appropriate, option for the third sector.

The Times newspaper has just published its first analysis of charity pay, said to average a modest £20,000 a year for most employees. However a few charity trustees are allowing their chief and senior executives to significantly line their pockets, with more than 1,000 of them trousering at least £100,000 a year, with some of those grabbing considerably more, and more than enough to bring the sector into the disrepute warned of by the Charity Commission. Continue reading →

A former employee of fundraising firm Wesser has alleged that the company deliberately targets elderly and vulnerable people living alone for donations, and pockets 45 pence for every pound collected from donors in their first two years of donations.

Following the allegations published in The Sun newspaper St John Ambulance, Wesser’s largest client, has suspended its dealings with them while it carries out its own investigation. Continue reading →

The chairman of the trustees of the collapsed Kids Company charity, Alan Yentob has resigned his £183.000 job as creative director of the BBC, saying that the furore in the wake of the August collapse was proving a “serious distraction”.

Yentob was widely blamed for his part, as trustee’s chairman, in the financial failure of the charity, which had received £46 million in public funding. He was also hit by media allegations that he misused his power at the BBC, asking Newsnight to delay a critical report into the charity. Continue reading →

The RSPCA has said it will stop bringing private prosecutions for cruelty against huntsmen, on the advice of a former employee of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Instead it will pass any evidence it collects to the police, trading standards or CPS.

A study found that four out of five attempts to prosecute hunts failed.

A prosecution of a hunt brought by the League Against Cruel Sports has collapsed after the court heard of the close links between the League’s expert witness, Professor Stephen Harris of Bristol University and his friend at the League, Paul Tillsly, the head of investigations.

The court heard that an academic paper by Harris was sponsored by the League, that Harris had appeared at their campaign events and that a book written by Harris had been published by the League.

The revelations call into question the seven previous convictions of huntsmen where Harris was an expert witness.

Three senior huntsmen at a Northumberland-based hunt have been found guilty of illegal fox-hunting after being chased around the Lowick area by investigators with cameras from the League Against Cruel Sports.

Joint Master Timothy Wyndham Basil Smalley was fined £2075, Huntsman Ian McKie was fined £1150 and Kennel Huntsman Alan Proe was fined £480. All three men are in their 50’s and all three had additional victim surcharges and court costs added to their fines. Continue reading →

Male suicide in Britain is being under-reported due to fears that widows could lose out on life insurance payments.

This is the concern of male suicide charity CALM – Campaign Against Living Miserably – which is compiling a report for a group of mental illness and counselling charities. It notes the sharp rise in male suicide, particularly among middle-aged men, and is calling for a re-think on how suicide is categorised at inquests.

Some retailers selling charity Christmas cards are donating less than 10% of their sale price to the charity, according to a recent survey by consumer organisation Which?

Reportedly Asda donates just 20pence from its sale of £3 charity cards, or 6.7%, the same percentage donated by the Co-op on its £1.50 cards. WH Smith and Waitrose both donate 10%, but John Lewis, which owns Waitrose donates 25%.

Charitable types wanting as much of their money as possible to reach their charity are advised to purchase cards directly from the charity, rather than through a retailer.

One good New Year resolution most can make is to stop leaving electrical gadgets in standby mode and making the power companies richer.

According to charity the Energy Saving Trust this will save the average household £30.