Chugging boss’s businesses go bust (but she’ll keep the Aston)
THIS is the owner of one of Britain’s biggest charity fundraising companies stepping into her £150,000 Aston Martin sports car – a few days after her business went bust leaving charities in the lurch.
Cathy Sullivan Bauso’s company Fundraising Initiatives Limited (FIL) was paid millions of pounds by the RSPCA, Battersea Dogs & Cats Home and others to find long-term donors.
But FIL and a sister company, Person to Person (P2P) Direct, have been put into administration with debts of up to £1million and the loss of as many as 300 jobs. One disgruntled individual complained in an internet post last week that while staff were owed back pay, Mrs Bauso “is still happy to drive in her Aston Martin DB9”.
The car, a favourite of Premier League footballers, is an unlikely vehicle for the boss of a charity fundraising company to drive. But the collapse of two of Mrs Bauso’s businesses shows it is becoming increasingly difficult for fundraisers to persuade people to agree to direct debit payments on the street. There have been a series of scandals over tactics used by so-called chuggers, although there is no suggestion that Mrs Bauso’s employees were breaking conduct rules.
The demise of FIL has left the RSPCA scrambling to find a new fundraising company at a time when the charity is struggling to appoint a new chief executive after almost two years and has seen donations decline.
The RSPCA had worked with FIL over several years and its most recent campaign began with the company in May 2014. It is understood that the RSPCA had intended to pay FIL about £1.8 million and in return FIL would sign up donors who, it was estimated, would provide almost £2.4million. The RSPCA has refused to say how much FIL was paid for the campaign.
Battersea Dogs & Cats Home said it had spent £646,000 between July and September this year with FIL, which it hoped would “bring in almost £1.3million over the next five years”.
Mrs Bauso, 56, from north London, called in administrators last Friday to wind up the two businesses. Other parts of her empire remain profitable.
Asher Miller, the administrator, said: “P2P Direct and FIL are in administration. The companies have ceased trading.” He said the scale of the debts was likely to be “within the range of £500,000 to £1million” and that money was owed to HM Revenue & Customs, staff for backpay as well as Mrs Bauso, her American husband Kenneth and members of his family. Charities may also be owed some money, he added.
Mr Miller, of David Rubin & Partners, said the fundraising sector had been
Mrs Bauso leaves her north London home in her Aston Martin DB9, angering online commentators as her staff are owed back pay hit by recent scandals which made it harder for chuggers to sign up donors, squeezing profit margins.
Mrs Bauso’s businesses had also suffered from an attempt to expand abroad, notably in Australia with Unicef, and from losses in P2P, which Mrs Bauso had bought out of administration and attempted to turn around.
“They have overstretched and bought a loss making subsidiary,” said Mr Miller. He said the Aston Martin was not a company car and he could not order its sale to pay off creditors.
Mrs Bauso, who founded FIL in 1999, declined to comment last week. “You should speak to the administrators,” she said.
At least five fundraising agencies are believed to have gone into administration since the start of the year, including R Fundraising, another company in Mrs Bauso’s fundraising empire.
A Sunday Telegraph investigation into chugging in 2013 led to the collapse of Tag campaigns, one of the biggest street fundraisers, which was found by the regulator to have broken the law. That business had nothing to do with Mrs Bauso’s companies.
A Battersea Dogs & Cats Home spokesman said: “This news will have only minimal impact on our fundraising income, as we have transferred our fundraising activities to another supplier.” Battersea refused to say who the new company was.
An RSPCA spokesman said its exposure to the company was “limited” as it only paid when a donor was signed up rather than in advance.
Peter Hills-Jones, chief executive of the Public Fundraising Association, the trade body, said they had been notified on Monday that FIL was being placed into administration, adding: “We are now trying to ascertain precisely what events led to this decision.”