The warning of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) that charities risked becoming a dirty word has gained substance after the ICO found that the RSPCA and the British Heart Foundation were paying investigators to snoop on donors to discover the extent of their wealth and assess how much might come to the charities in the donor’s wills. The two charities were also found to be sharing donor’s data with other organisations, putting them at risk of fraud. Continue reading →

Age UK have revealed that nearly a million elderly 60+ people will suffer chronic loneliness this festive season while most other folk are opening presents, spending pleasurable time with family and/or friends and tucking into the turkey and mince pies. Continue reading →

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) are now carrying out an investigation into care homes.

This follows complaints of unfair treatment of families with relatives in care by the homes, which includes sudden price increases, “top up payments”, “management fees” of up to £2,000 and extra charges of up to £10,000 for those paying their own fees rather than having them paid by a council.

Some families have been deterred from complaining to their care home after some elderly patients have been evicted in revenge, the reason CMA will now put a proper and fair complaints procedure in place.

A major player in the charitable distribution of hundreds of millions of pounds worth of foreign aid supplied by the Department for International Development has been caught using concocted testimonials from its staff to influence a Parliamentary inquiry into its performance. Continue reading →

The number of children calling NSPCC charity Childline about gender identity has tripled in the last three years, to 2796 in the year to March 2016.

Most were aged 12 – 15 but the charity also counselled 260 11-year-olds. Childline say that main issues discussed with “trans” children were the mental health problems of feeling “trapped in the wrong body”, and suicidal thoughts, caused by cruel abuse and homophobic bullying.

A woman who fraudulently claimed money from the Cumbria Community Foundation charity has been given a suspended sentence.

Nicola Moore, 33, claimed for flood damage to her own goods, as well as for furniture that belonged to her landlord, not to her, after last years Storm Desmond. Having received £1,250 she then put in a second claim, which included the same items of her landlord’s.

Moore received an 18-month prison term suspended for two years, a 250-hour Community Service Order and was ordered to pay back £350 to the charity.

It is a pity someone at the otherwise excellent Art Fund has decided the charity will behave like a big, bad company and suggest donors pay for its mistakes.

One gentle editor of a charity publication we know fell foul of this bad thinking when he gladly took out an annual direct debit subscription to the excellent Art Card, giving him valuable free entry to a number of highly-regarded art galleries, and discounts from many others. Sadly the Art Fund then wrote claiming that his bank had “declined the transaction” and suggesting that he either fund the amount, around £80, some other way or send the card back explaining why he had cancelled it. (he hadn’t) There was also the suggestion that he could phone an 0844 number to discuss other options. Continue reading →

Military charities are under investigation after it emerged that some of their fund-raisers lie to the donating public about how much actually goes to the causes they represent.

Support The Heroes, set up in 2014 to help veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was banned from collecting donations, and closed down on the eve of Remembrance Sunday after their fund-raisers were filmed by the BBC telling donors that every penny collected went to good causes when in fact 33% of the money was paid to a professional fundraising company, Targeted Management Ltd, run by Tony Chadwick from Blackpool. Support The Heroes is run by two of Chadwick’s former business partners and has paid over more than £60,000 of the £192,000 it has raised. Continue reading →

The NSPCC has set up a dedicated helpline for sexual abuse victims in football since a number of footballers have revealed on national television that they had been abused by their coaches as children, many by convicted predatory paedophile Barry Bennell, now 62, who worked as a talent spotter and coach for Crewe Alexandra and had links to Manchester City, Leeds United and Stoke City. Continue reading →