“Helen Harvie's extensive experience in the Third Sector is invaluable to any organisation. Her ability to deliver timely, relevant and cost effective advice is paramount. I have worked with Helen on various projects and she has my highest regard.”
Doug Sanders, Financial Adviser to the Third Sector.
“Helen has helped us with a range of governance advice, incorporation of our charity and the merger of two charities over recent years and her thoroughly professional and friendly service has been much appreciated.”
Arthur Birkby MBE, Chairman – Voluntary Support North Surrey.
“Helen understands the needs and the challenges facing the charity sector. She draws on her extensive experience to offer a proactive, problem solving approach. Her fixed fees ensure we achieve added value at a known affordable cost.”
Charles Haywood, Director – MacConvilles Surveying
“After struggling with the legalities of registering our existing Charity as a Company Ltd by Guarantee, we decided to use the professional knowledge of Helen Harvie. She worked with us to clarify each step, explained the process simply and communicated with the Charity Commission and Companies House on our behalf. I would highly recommend using Helen’s expertise.”
Nancy Williams, Director - The Studio ADHD Centre
“As a board of Trustees we have found Helen Harvie's counsel and advice to the charity invaluable over the years.”
Robin Hobson, Director – Laurence Gould
The exception for certain small religious charities from compulsory registration with the charity commission has now been extended by 10 years to 2031.
The amendment to the ‘Charities Regulation 1996’ by further extending the temporary exception until 31 March 2031 was laid before par time to on the 19th of Jan 2021 and will come into force on 31 March 2021.
The exception was originally due to expire on the 1 March 2001 but was extended by successive statutory instruments to 31 March 2021 and now again.
This temporary exception applies to churches and chapels belonging to some Christian denominations that have a gross annual income of under £100,000.
On the 14th September 2020 the Fundraising Regulator published its latest review into the extent to which charities report about their fundraising practices in their annual report.
It found that 85% of charities report on at least one of the audit requirements. However, only 21% provided all of the required information and 15% reported on none of the requirements.
This is the second review of this kind and the Fundraising Regulator concluded that very little improvement had been made in the last year. The areas that were particularly lacking in information were activities carried out by third parties on their behalf, their commitment to voluntary regulations, complaints reviewed and what they were doing to protect vulnerable people and the public during fundraising.
The Fundraising Regulator has updated its guidance on the requirements in the hope that this will encourage charities to fully address all the requirements in their future annual report.
When a person donates in a door to door collection of goods it should be in the knowledge that a proportion of that collection goes to a charity but not all of it. The commercial participator should take responsibility for this information being clear.
All collection bags should have the company name and charity name on both sides of the bag with equal prominence given to both names and logos.
This news alert is linked to the ASA’s 2017 guidance which was issued following a company breaking the CAP codes. This charity was using collection bags to mislead consumers into believing they were donating directly to the charity.
This guidance does not apply however where charity shops collect goods on behalf of the charity to be sold in the shop. The Charity Commission and Fundraising Regulator expect charities to monitor compliance by a third party fundraiser or commercial partner. This includes checking that the collection bags adhere to the ASA’s guidelines.
The Charity Commission has appointed an Interim Manager to the charity Islamic Research Foundation International. This is as part of an ongoing enquiry addressing ‘serious concerns’ over the charity’s governance.
The charity was contacted in the past about its governance and now in its latest filing with Companies House it has been revealed that the foundation gave more than one million pounds to the corporation that owns Peace TV.
Peace TV no longer have a licence to broadcast in the UK. They were suspended in 2019 after they breached Ofcom’s rules on hate speech, airing programmes containing homophobic and anti-Semitic hate speech.
An Interim Manager was appointed in July and part of her job will be to consider whether the charity has a viable future. There are ongoing concerns that the charity’s board will not be willing or able to ‘appropriately adapt to the issues raised. There is also a continuing inquiry into how the trustees intend to use the funds that are now not being used to fund Peace TV and whether trustees may be personally benefiting from funds intended to go towards charitable purposes.
Recently a letter was sent by the Al Rayan Bank to dozens of charities as a sixty-day notice on the changing of the bank’s policies about transferring money overseas. They state, ‘whilst you will still be able to make international payments… to beneficiaries within the EU, you will no longer be able to make international payments to any beneficiary outside the EU’.
This means that many charities will ‘go out of business’ because they will not be able to fund their development work in other countries.
Many Muslim charities will be affected by this and have expressed their concerns, feeling already that Al Rayan were a ‘last resort’ after frustration at their treatment by mainstream banks moved them to have to use Al Rayan.
