Tag: Charity Commission

Charity regulator seeks input into new draft social media guidance

Stuart Mitchell

The Charity Commission is consulting with charities, sector organisations and the public to develop new guidance for charities when they use social media. The regulator is seeking views on its new draft guidance, which is intended to help trustees use social media appropriately and with confidence. The new resource is designed to help trustees understand their responsibilities and manage the risks; it encourages them to adopt a social media policy for their charity and outlines what can be included in the policy. It also aims to help trustees understand what…

Read More

Call for Charity Commission to take ‘pivotal role’ in improving grant-making

Stuart Mitchell

The Charity Commission should use its “soft power”, alongside the sector’s infrastructure bodies, to help improve the grant-making process for charities and funders, according to a major new report. New research for the Law Family Commission on Civil Society, carried out by Pro Bono Economics, found that the process by which charitable trusts and foundations award grants in the UK was beset by “short-termism”, “sub-optimal processes” and the “reproduction of wider social inequalities”. The report recognises the rich diversity of the grant-making community, from foundations with multimillion pound endowments, to…

Read More

Charities at risk of ‘underestimating’ online fraud as one in eight experienced cybercrime last year

Stuart Mitchell

The Charity Commission is warning charities against the risk of online fraud, as a new survey found around one in eight charities (12%) had experienced cybercrime in the previous 12 months. This follows earlier findings indicating that the pandemic prompted increasing numbers of charities to move to digital fundraising and operating, exposing them to the risk of cybercrime. Most concerningly, the survey highlighted a potential lack of awareness of the risks facing charities online, with just over 24% having a formal policy in place to manage the risk. Similarly, only…

Read More

Charity Commission aims to release £25 million for charities in Wales

Stuart Mitchell

The Charity Commission has announced the launch of the Revitalising Trusts Programme in Wales. The programme is run in partnership with Community Foundation Wales, with funding from the Welsh Government. The Commission plans to contact over 200 charities in Wales to release a target of £25 million that is currently lying idle in dormant accounts. The programme works by identifying charities in Wales that are either inactive (meaning they have had no income or expenditure over the last 5 years) or ineffective (having spent less than 30% of their total…

Read More

Watchdog warns charities and the public to protect themselves against fraudsters amid pandemic

Stuart Mitchell

The Charity Commission is warning trustees and donors to strengthen their defences as it fears the pandemic has created environments that are enabling charity fraud. Charities have reported being victims of fraud or cybercrime 645 times since the start of the pandemic in March, amounting to £3.6 million in total losses to charities. The true scale of fraud against charities is believed to be much higher, as fraud is known to be underreported. The regulator is concerned that remote working and virtual activities and sign-off processes, combined with charities’ tendencies…

Read More