heart pebble in glass jar of coins

It can be difficult to keep on track with all the Charity Commission updates flying into your inbox.  Below is what you need to know from the last few months.

Guidance/regulatory reports – Charity regulator opens inquiry into SPAC nation

  • The inquiry will examine the financial, governance and safeguarding matters at the charity
    • The charity is not banking its money, instead it is keeping it as cash
    • There is a lack of clarity between the personal, business and charity roles of leaders within the charity
      • Individuals claim they were asked to give money to the charity/individuals connected with the charity by taking on a personal debt
    • How are the trustees managing the risks, including reputational risks to the charity in corroboration with negative publicity

Alert for charitiesfraudsters impersonating staff

  • Several charities have had fraudsters attempting to change employees bank details via email
  • Suggest you should request clarification from an alternatively outsourced email address or phone number to check when changes are requested
  • You should report this action to Action Fraud

Alert for charitiescyber crime and how to report to the Charity Commission

  • Over 2/3’s of high income charities recorded a cyber breach or attack in 2018
  • The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has produced a useful guide on how to protect from cyber crimes
  • If your charity suffers from cyber crime contact Action Fraud

Charity Commission Guidance – Guidance for reporting a serious incident in your charity when it involves a partner

  • Trustees should make a serious incident report when an incident has occurred involving one of the charity’s partners in the UK or internationally which materially affects the charity, its staff, operations, finances and/or reputation

Charities urged to turn to mergers in ‘aspiration’, not just financial ‘desperation’

Government launches charity safeguarding portal

News / updates

Researching diversity and volunteering

  • They are looking at diversity in stages:
    • Stage one (spring 2020) will look at the perspective of organisations by
      • Reviewing existing evidence
      • Getting feedback from organisations about what they’re doing and their experiences to date
      • Conducting ‘expert’ interviews
      • Developing case examples
    • Stage two (summer/autumn 2020) will take a more focused approach informed by what stakeholders said they’d like us to prioritise during the first stage

The Charity commission is planning to produce a report on senior staff pay at charities

The Charity Commission will receive an extra £2.4 million in 2020-21, raising its income from £24.9m to £27.3m

The integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) into the investment process: providing both values and value for charities.

Charities launch ‘investing Olympics’ for £32m fund

All Charity Commission updates, alerts, decisions, reports and statements