Tag: Charity Commission

New guidance for charities facing decisions about donations

Stuart Mitchell

The Charity Commission has published new guidance to help charities when deciding whether to accept, refuse or return a donation. The regulator’s guidance makes clear that trustees should start from a position of accepting donations, but from time to time a charity may face a difficult decision as whether to refuse or return a donation. The guidance is designed to help trustees have informed discussions when faced with a choice that has potentially significant consequences. The Commission has set out an approach for trustees to take on these occasions, advising…

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Charity Commission stresses independence in five-year strategy

Stuart Mitchell

The Charity Commission for England and Wales has launched its five-year strategy, setting out its core purpose and strategic priorities for 2024-2029. The strategy embeds the regulator’s ambition to be fair, balanced, and independent, in setting out five key priorities for the next five years. The ongoing cost-of-living crisis, and the disruption brought by the pandemic, have tested the resilience of many charities, whilst highlighting their central importance to society – and the strategy says financial resilience will be a central issue in the coming five years. The strategy also…

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Charity Commission announces next Chief Executive

Stuart Mitchell

David Holdsworth has been appointed as the next Chief Executive of the Charity Commission for England and Wales.   David, who has been CEO of the Animal and Plant Health Agency since 2022, will take up the role on 1 July 2024, replacing Helen Stephenson, whose term comes to an end this summer after seven years in the role.   David was previously Deputy Chief Executive of the Intellectual Property Office, and prior to that served at the Charity Commission as Deputy Chief Executive and Registrar. In that role David led a…

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UK charity regulators urge banks to remove ‘avoidable frustrations’ for charities

Stuart Mitchell

The bosses of the UK’s charity regulators have written to the UK’s largest banks to request “urgent action” to stop charities being given poor service or denied accounts. The letter, from Helen Stephenson (Charity Commission for England and Wales), Maureen Mallon (Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator) and Frances McCandless (Charity Commission for Northern Ireland), says that charities are “on the frontline of the current cost-of-living crisis”, and that the challenges they face are being “heightened by avoidable frustrations” created by banks. The three chief executives say there is “little…

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Charity Commission CEO to conclude term of office in 2024

Stuart Mitchell

Charity Commission Chief Executive, Helen Stephenson, has announced her decision to step down at the end of her term in 2024, after seven years at the top of the organisation. Dr Stephenson, who will be the Commission’s longest serving Chief Executive, took up post in July 2017, following an extensive career in senior roles across the public and voluntary sector. Helen has led the organisation – and wider sector – through a series of challenges, from ensuring meaningful change following safeguarding and other scandals in 2015-18, which drove public trust…

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