Charities warned on fight to survive amid decline in public trust

CHARITIES face a battle for survival unless they improve their behaviour in the wake of a series of scandals, the new watchdog head will warn in a keynote speech today.

Baroness Stowell of Beeston, the chairman of the Charity Commission, will insist that the future of charities cannot be taken for granted with public trust in the sector at an all-time low.

She will call on charities to “avoid extravagance, complacency and the appearance of self-interest”.

The voluntary sector has been rocked by the disclosure that Oxfam and Save the Children were embroiled in sex abuse scandals; growing complaints over high salaries paid to charity bosses; and aggressive fundraising tactics – which were highlighted when Olive Cooke, a 92-year-old poppy seller, took her own life after being inundated with begging letters. Meanwhile, in August, the RSPCA was issued with an official warning from the Charity Commission over a reported six-figure settlement paid out to the charity’s acting chief executive that amounted to “mismanagement”.

In a keynote speech ahead of the Charity Commission’s publication of a new strategy to better hold organisations to account, Baroness Stowell will say: “My conviction is that being a registered charity will need to amount to more than it does today if that status is to survive, let alone to thrive.”

She said that if charities failed to improve their behaviour – and if the Charity Commission did not do its job as watchdog – then both would be “complicit in its decline”.

Baroness Stowell, who is paid £62,500 for up to two-and-half days a week, was appointed Charity Commission chairman in March.