Charity Commission is a complete joke

Glaucus said:
This.

Not sure what a trustee actually does. But anyway you can call a meeting and try to instigate change.


All charities should have to post open book finances on their website yearly, so you can see where everything goes. Would more likely give to bigger charities then.
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The charities commission has a breakdown of where the money goes, be it running expenses, staff and actual charity work.
 
If the charity doesn't make over £10k they don't have to submit their accounts.
 
PiKe said:
If the charity doesn't make over £10k they don't have to submit their accounts.
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Seems a bit exploitable. I can just invent a charity, go round collecting money for it and as long as I stay under 10k, it's all in my pocket no questions asked?

Anyone wanna donate to Moo Trust, helping less than fortunate people out around my household?
 
I know UNICEF executives get first class flight tickets everywhere.

There are many, many worthwhile charities in this country but sadly charity status is increasingly being abused by those at the top - excessive CEO salaries, tax dodges, access to politicians, celebrities, business etc.
 
MooMoo444 said:
Seems a bit exploitable. I can just invent a charity, go round collecting money for it and as long as I stay under 10k, it's all in my pocket no questions asked?

Anyone wanna donate to Moo Trust, helping less than fortunate people out around my household?
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Why go round collecting money? Sounds like hard work to me. There are many easier ways to earn money as a charity especially if you have the right connections - lottery, government grants, big business.
 
Very interested to know what the charity targets or the goals / aims?

Depends if they're local politicians or not. If they are then it could put you in deep do dah. It's worth remembering MP's naturally play by a different set of rules. :)

HMRC has directives not to investigate MPs unless it's in the public interest from personal knowledge from the other-half of previously working for them.

Assuming they're not politicians then yeah inform HMRC or the press.
 
PiKe said:
I know of a charity which is appears to be purely run to cover the expenses of the chair and secretary.

I know this because as a trustee I've been asked to total receipts up, any money the charity is making just ends up in their pockets as expenses. They appear to be claiming for everything, even fuel to get to and from the shop and they aren't taking mileage readings (so personal fuel gets lumped in too!).

I reported this to the Charity Commission but they couldn't get a toss, all they did is site me a paragraph which states that trustee's are allowed to reclaim expenses.

Its really made me wonder what other charities are doing something similar if they can get away with doing this? I'm not donating anything to the charity in question because I know the money will not be getting to the right people! :mad:
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System is corrupt just like any large corporation. These ****ers feed the population with emotional porn which makes people feel like they've done their good deed for the day/year.
 
Though I have no evidence, I often wonder about someone who lives near me who runs a small charity. They have new, decent cars changing frequently, the partner doesn't work and they seem to lead a decent life, though of course may not necessarily be the result of the charity.
 
bitslice said:
The RSPCA has been a rip for years, pushing for more money when it already had a massive excess in the bank (killing off far better charities like cats protection and dogs trust).
Nothing is done though.
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I was involved in making a fair sized donation to Guide Dogs for the Blind a while back and someone bent my ear about why were we not giving it to a real charity? The deed was done and I've never investigated further, but they claimed that the Guide Dogs Charity is absolutely rolling in cash and gets loads more money that it actually needs from bequests, puppy sponsorship etc.
 
This is an inherent problem in a lot of small charities I'd have thought - if you have to pay the expenses of the people running it or worse still have full time salaried members of staff then unless they can grow beyond a certain size a lot of the money is just going to be spent on running costs.

A friend of mine has a sister who seemingly set up a charity to go help orphans etc.. from what I could tell it seemed to be used for her to go traveling, update some blog and ponce about at a few orphanages in some foreign countries where the presence of a white face for a few weeks playing with the kids etc.. is some how going to be of immense benefit.

Big charities seem to be able to waste money as it is yet have the economies of scale and are inherently more likely to be more efficient than most small charities set up by people with perhaps slightly noble albeit rather dubious intentions.
 
dowie said:
A friend of mine has a sister who seemingly set up a charity to go help orphans etc.. from what I could tell it seemed to be used for her to go traveling, update some blog and ponce about at a few orphanages in some foreign countries where the presence of a white face for a few weeks playing with the kids etc.. is some how going to be of immense benefit.
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Ah but she's successfully "raising awareness" of the problem.
 
Halestorm said:
Pass the information anonymously to local press?
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I REALLY wouldn’t do this.

Do the public contribute to this charity or do these people claiming it themselves finance it themselves? Reason I ask is that it could be structured in such a way to be completely legal, i.e. if the charity accepts donations to cover the expenses of these MP’s in a particular role such as duties or some other wishy washy statement. You’d be shooting yourself in the foot if this were the case.

If not then I would say you need to file an official report to the Charities Commission as well as HMRC and any other UK charity regulatory body from the angle of misappropriation of charitable funds for personal gain.

Misappropriation of funds is a serious matter but you may want to take legal advice before going forward as you could be liable as the Trustee. Whether it is illegal or not is for a professional to say but I would definitely ask.

Either way I wouldn’t say anything to the MP’s and definitely not go public with it but seriously do not sit on this if you suspect this isn’t right as if they do get investigated and it is found out you had suspicions and didn’t report it then you would be in big trouble. I don’t know much about UK compliance matters but where I am this is a real hot topic and burying your head in the sand or simply keeping quiet carries almost more problems than committing the illegal act.
 
Once again, I never signed anything, so quite why I'm listed as a trustee, I don't know.

I'd rather have nothing to do with it.
 
Well its up to them to prove my involvement with the charity, else you could make anyone the fall guy surely?
 
I mean I've done my part, I've informed the CC, they don't care, I've never claimed expenses and I'm not part of any decision making.

I can't make them remove me as a trustee especially due to my relationship to the chair.
 
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