Charity Matters Aug/Sep 2017 ISSUE 74

RACIAL OR RACIST? Telling the truth and siding with justice can be tough calls in the UK when they involve racial aspects. Ask Labour MP for Rotherham Sarah …

SAD IT HAS TO BE The stupid and thoughtless actions of a few charities have now made it harder for all to fundraise. The Fundraising Preference Service allows any …

CURBING ABATTOIR CRUELTYCCTV cameras are to be installed in all slaughterhouses, to ensure that animals to be killed are treated with compassion …

SICK TV DROPPED Stan Kroenke, the American billionaire who owns 67% of Arsenal Football club has swiftly shelved plans to run a subscription bloodsports channel …

CHARITY THIEF SPARED JAIL A manager at the Simon Community charity for the homeless has been spared jail after stealing nearly £10,000 from his employer …

BREACHED FOX HUNTING LAWS The first convictions for breaching fox hunting laws in Scotland have been handed down to a father and son team. John Clive …

MOVING ON The head of the National Trust, Dame Helen Ghosh, 51, is leaving the UK’s biggest charity after a controversial five year tenure to become master of …

TALLY HO HO HO Could we ever see a situation where those who hunt, and/or support the hunts are placed on a special animal cruelty register, flagging them up as …

Charity Matters Jun/Jul 2017 ISSUE 73

SOME REAL CHARITY “Charity begins at home” runs the saying, and no better example of this in action can be found than the speedy actions of hundreds of …

LOW According to the Charity Fraud Line the number of frauds perpetrated on charities has increased by 30% in three years, with analysts claiming that more than £2 billion …

MISGUIDED? Claims that refugee charities are paying criminal gangs of people traffickers to ferry desperate migrants to their rescue boats moored off Libya have …

CLEAN UP AT PETPLAN The RSPCA has welcomed moves by specialist pet insurer Petplan to dump its online-only dog breeder approval scheme and carry out …

FINES FOR FACEBOOK? The NSPCC has called for heavy fines for Facebook and other social network companies if they fail to delete content that could harm children …

TUTOR STOLE FOR GIRLFRIEND A Muslim I.T. tutor stole from his charity employer to pay for hotel stays with his secret Christian girlfriend. Inner London crown court …

SOME GOOD FROM BRAVE REMORSE A dog-owner who was prosecuted after his three dogs died when left in his car without water or ventilation for five hours has told …

Charity Matters Apr/May 2017 ISSUE 72

CRUELTY HIGHLIGHTED Animal abusers could face far more severe sentences if a Private Member’s Bill presented by Redcar Labour Co-operative MP Anna Turley is …

ETHICAL LAPSE Following a two year investigation the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has now fined some of Britain’s largest and best-regarded charities for …

ROYAL BOOST FOR MENTAL HEALTH Public awareness of mental health issues has been increased by the admission by Prince Harry to anti-suicide charity CALM …

FAMILY FUN DAY TO HELP PAEDOPHILES CRITICISED The Safer Living Foundation, which works to rehabilitate paedophiles, has been criticised for organising a Family Fun …

KIDS CO DISQUALIFICATIONS The Insolvency Service has warned all former directors of the collapsed Kids Company charity that they could face disqualification …

WHY? A Bedfordshire charity, Preen, has been the target of mindless and disgusting vandalism over the Easter holiday. Persons unknown broke into the Biggleswade …

JUST POCKETING AGAIN JustGiving, the charity donations website that makes £20 million a year from donor’s generosity has been criticised for refusing to waive its 5% …

Charity Matters Feb/Mar 2017 ISSUE 71

SICKENING ECHO OF HOLOCAUST Amnesty International have provided photographic and witness evidence that between 2011 and 2015 Syrian president …

SEX ABUSE IN FOOTBALL Another one hundred football clubs have been named in Operation Hydrant, the police investigation looking at cases of sex abuse in football…

OWN GOALS Ex-England football captain David Beckham has been accused of using his work for charity as part of a campaign to win a knighthood after emails between …

DARK NET Extreme internet pornography is being blamed for the doubling of criminal convictions for rape by those aged under 17 in the last four years. Recent cases …

DON’T DO AS I DO The married head of the Care4Calais charity set up to help migrants had an affair with one, despite preaching that her charity’s strict policy was “no …

MORE HOMELESS Shelter has revealed that two London families an hour are made homeless. The charity has predicted that 1260 families in the capital will lose their home …

MUSICAL SUPPORT FOR CHARITY An opera singer is donating some of the profits from the sales of her CD to the Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis charity after her 78 year…

TIME TO DO IT YOURSELVES The donations website JustGiving has been accused of greed as figures reveal that it makes £20 million a year and pays one of its founders a …

Charity Matters Dec 2016 Jan 2017 ISSUE 70

LETTING THE SECTOR DOWN The warning of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) that charities risked becoming a dirty word has gained substance after the ICO …

LONELY THIS CHRISTMAS Age UK have revealed that nearly a million elderly 60+ people will suffer chronic loneliness this festive season while most other folk are …

CARE HOMES PROBE The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) are now carrying out an investigation into care homes. This follows complaints of unfair treatment of …

AID COMPANY CONCOCTS TESTIMONIALS A major player in the charitable distribution of hundreds of millions of pounds worth of foreign aid supplied by the …

IT’S A MIXED UP WORLD 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 …

FRAUDSTER SPARED JAIL A woman who fraudulently claimed money from the Cumbria Community Foundation charity has been given a suspended sentence …

COPYING THE CORPORATES 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 …

Charity Matters Oct/Nov 2016 ISSUE 69

MILITARY CHARITIES PROBE Military charities are under investigation after it emerged that some of their fund-raisers lie to the donating public about how much actually goes …

PRIESTS, POLITICIANS, DOCTORS, DISC JOCKEYS, FOOTBALL COACHES…
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 …

RSPCA MAKE MISTAKES An internal investigation into the RSPCA’s putting down of a 16-year old cat in 2013 and attempt to prosecute its owners for cruelty has seen the …

TIME FOR GREED TO BE CURBED Debt charity StepChange has called for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to intervene on overdraft fines charged by the banks …

HEARTENING Patients with damage due to heart attacks are being offered a £10,000 procedure by a charity whereby their own stem cells from their bone marrow are …

DON’T CARE THEN? The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published new guidelines aimed at preventing care homes from punishing residents whose relatives …

BITING THE DATA BULLET The Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) will be the UK’s first major charity to adopt “opt-in” rules on how it communicates with its donors, though …

ROYALTY FOR SALE? The Centrepoint charity for young homeless people, a favourite of Prince William, has been accused of “crude hustling” following allegations that they …

GARY ON THE BALL The fostering charity TACT has apologised for falsely claiming that a man in his late thirties arriving in Calais as a “child refugee” was an interpreter…

Charity Matters Aug/Sep 2016 ISSUE 68

FREEING THE SLAVES A rocketing number of UK slavery victims were helped out by the Salvation Army, more than 1,800, between April 2015 and March 2016… 

ASSISTED DYING LEGALISED The Canadian Senate has passed new laws allowing doctors to actively assist terminally ill patients to die, if it is their wish…

ABUSE OF TRUST A respected funeral director has been given a 15 month suspended sentence for stealing at least £14,000 donated to charities by grieving families…

DRUNK? The British Council, patron the Queen, has distanced itself from abusive and foul-mouthed remarks about Prince George made by the charity’s £80,000 a year Head …

MORE SICK HUNTERS Following the needless death of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe last year by killing-for-fun American dentist Walter Palmer, another brave American hunter …

AND A SICK SLAUGHTERHOUSE OPERATIVE Covert filming by animal rights charity Hillside Animal Sanctuary at the Staffordshire slaughterhouse of “high class” family …

CORPORATE NEUTERING Large conservation and wildlife protection charities such as Friends of The Earth, World Wildlife Fund, World Animal Protection and Greenpeace…

NEW POWERS AFFECTING CHARITIES The Charity Commission is being given new powers by the Cabinet Office to discipline charities and their trustees, planned to be …

CHARITY RIDE A 13 year old boy has taken the ultimate London Tube challenge – visiting every one of the 270 stations in a day to raise money for charity Bloodwise, after…

Charity Matters Jun/Jul 2016 ISSUE 67

MORE QUESTIONABLE CHARITY ETHICS Charities that seem to be run for the benefit of direct marketing firms, rather than those the charity is supposed to be helping, have …

TRUST THE TRUST? The National Trust, Britain’s largest charity with more than 4 million members has been accused of hypocrisy over its sales of greenfield land for building …

GOOD COUNTRY, US The Good Country Guide has placed the UK fourth in a list of 163 countries for its high contribution to the common good of humanity. The guide ranks …

CASH GRAB BY CHARITY Donors allowing charities access to their bank accounts to collect agreed donations may wish to revisit the wisdom of this after charity Concern …

DANGEROUS ELECTRICAL FAKES If you’ve bought, either knowingly or unknowingly a counterfeit electrical product in the last twelve months you are in the company of 2.5 …

SOMEONE WILL LOOK AFTER THEM The actions of an unmarried woman in Newcastle who has had seventeen consecutive children taken into care over the last …

RETAIL THERAPY Oniomania, the posh word for compulsive shopping, is as likely to take over and damage the lives of its sufferers as gambling, sex or work addictions …

WELL YOU WOULD, WOULDN’T YOU? Portable loos at the Glastonbury festival are delivering charitable messages from Water Aid to music fans, using the voices of Brian …

Charity Matters Apr/May 2016 ISSUE 66

TOO MANY CHARITY SHOPS NOW?  Many high street charity shops should be closed as they cost the Government more in tax breaks than they make in profits…

CHARITIES DEPRIVED BY FRAUD A treasurer of a Lancashire branch of the Unite union has been jailed for 20 months after he stole monies due to be given to charities…

CRITICISM FOR CHARITY, AND THE COMMISSION The Times has published strong criticism of the League Against Cruel Sports, which it says has “squandered” a £3.5 m…

DIANE ABBOTT”S CHARITY FACING FINES AND PROSECUTION The modestly-named Diane Abbott Foundation, an educational charity set up last year by the Labour …

CRIMINALISING HOMELESSNESS Housing and homelessness charities have warned that recent moves by local councils to ban rough sleeping are counter-productive…

DON’T FALL FOR THIS ONE Charities are being used by fraudsters to persuade computer users to click on a link that then encrypts all their files in seconds, allowing …

FREE SEMINARS ON GRANT APPLICATIONS A programme of short seminars on grant applications is offered free to charities wanting to learn more about the subject…

SWEET RELIEF Cyclists cycling from John O Groats to Lands End to raise £250,000 for Sport Relief came across a van parked on a lonely road near the Cornwall and Devon …

Charity Matters Feb/Mar 2016 ISSUE 65

BROKEN TRUST Trust is a fragile thing. It’s very easy and quick to break, very hard and slow to mend. The allegation in the Sun newspaper earlier this month, that  …

WE ARE NOT AMUSED There is no doubt that patronage from our Royal family is positive for hundreds of chosen charities and the endorsement of the RSPCA by H.M …

CRIMINAL ELEMENT IN “FIELD SPORTS” Hare coursing, once a legal “field sport” has been taken over by criminal gangs since being made illegal by the 2004 Hunting Act…

ASDA BOSS STOLE FROM COMPANY CHARITY FUND Paul Kelly, formerly Asda’s vice president for corporate affairs faces jail after admitting seven counts of fraud at …

GIVE TO CHARITY – LOSE YOUR FRIENDS? A donation to charity in place of a gift is around a quarter less acceptable than some donors think. This has emerged in a study…

MORE BENT FOOTBALL The founder of a UN-backed charity formed to combat trafficking of footballer is being investigated for trafficking. It is alleged that former…

VENUE OFFER TO CHARITIES Free canapes and sparkling wine on arrival are two of the inducements being offered to charities booking events at the Stadium of Light …