Charities must not refuse donations because of personal views
By Janet Eastham
TRUSTEES must not allow their personal views to prevent them accepting donations, the chair of the Charity Commission warns in new guidelines published today.
The watchdog’s guidance comes after several high-profile charities were criticised for refusing significant amounts amid mounting pressure from activists.
The commission’s advice will enable trustees to accept donations in the face of mounting scrutiny of their funding sources. Writing in The Telegraph, Orlando Fraser KC, its chairman, warned that charities are likely to be in no position to turn down vital funds as “there is an urgent need for more monies to flow into the charity sector”.
Introducing the guidelines, Mr Fraser stressed that charities were expected to “take monies that are offered, only refusing when there is very good reason”.
The document cautions executives from “allow[ing] yours or others’ personal motives, opinions, or interests to affect your decision”.
Though the legal stance is in favour of accepting funds, significant contributions to charities have been turned down in recent years, in particular by arts institutions and museums – a group targeted by climate activists such as Just Stop Oil.
In recent years, the Scottish Ballet, The National Portrait Gallery, The Royal Opera House, the Tate and the Royal Shakespeare Company have ended generous financial sponsorships from fossil fuel companies. In 2022, Save the Children rejected a £750,000 donation from Neptune Energy, reportedly intended for Ukrainian children, and last year issued guidance stating it would no longer accept funds from companies that produce fossil fuels.
Mr Fraser has previously criticised the “personal squeamishness around sources of philanthropic funding” demonstrated by some charity executives. Speaking to the University of Kent in November, he claimed that such reticence “may benefit the sense of righteous progressiveness of a trustee or charity executive, but it will most likely not serve the beneficiary reliant on the services a charity provides”.
He pledged that he would “not allow the Commission to be misused or weaponised by any army involved in fighting these wars”. The watchdog’s new rules are intended to help trustees come to “rational and reasonable” decisions that are “supported by clear evidence” when considering turning down donations.
Writing in The Telegraph, Mr Fraser explained the context of these new guidelines. While individual donations reached an all time high in 2022 of £12.7 billion – the same cannot be said for philanthropy from the wealthiest section of the UK, which has been on “a downward trend” post-pandemic.
He also criticised those who use the charity sector to score political points and stressed that the commission would remain entirely independent, warning that “materially irrational” refusals would be investigated. “As a fair, balanced and independent regulator, the commission will not weigh in unnecessarily, but where decision-making looks materially irrational, we can choose to take another look,” he wrote.
In addition to not being swayed by irrelevant personal preferences, the guidelines set out how executives should balance multiple factors when deciding whether to refuse or return a donation. Factors to be weighed included the “value of the donation and its potential to help you further your charity’s purposes”– and thus the financial harm that could come from turning it down.
Clear conflicts between the source of funds and the charity’s aims should also be identified, for example, “a cancer research charity may decide not to accept donations from donors that mainly produce or sell tobacco”.
‘There is an urgent need for more monies to flow into the private sector’ ‘Reticence will most likely not serve the beneficiary reliant on the services a charity provides’