The Captain Tom charity scandal is a warning to us all to be careful who you donate to
’Tis the season for giving. And let’s face it, there are no end of takers. At every turn, there’s someone shaking a bucket outside the shopping centre, standing behind a hastily erected trestle table at a railway station or angling for a direct debit on your doorstep.
But – sorry to channel Scrooge – can you be sure where your hard cash is going? From the bitter legacy of Captain Tom Moore’s selfless fundraising during lockdown to the resignation of BBC Children in Need’s chair, the respected broadcaster Rosie Millard, over grants awarded to an LGBT organisation mired in child sex abuse scandals, the optics aren’t great right now.
Did you know the British Red Cross has just cut ties with Harrods? Yes, after its late former owner, Mohamed Al-Fayed, was hit with an avalanche of rape and assault claims, donations from the luxury emporium have been barred.
By way of explanation, the charity says Harrods does not fit its “organisational values and fundamental principles”. True, I’m sure. But do the benighted victims of the civil war in Sudan have to pay the price? Apparently so.
Charity, as we all know, begins at home. But whose home? I’m not sure the bougie spa facility built by Captain Tom’s daughter, Hannah Ingram-Moore, and her husband Colin at the bottom of their Bedfordshire garden was really in the spirit of things – and neither did the local council, who demolished it earlier this year.
Captain Tom, you will recall, raised £38.9 million for NHS charities by walking 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday in April 2020, at the beginning of the Covid pandemic. He was subsequently knighted and died in February 2021.
His unique legacy was heartfelt, moving and an extraordinary model of how one man can unite a country – until, that is, his family got involved to divide the spoils.
The Captain Tom Foundation was set up in May 2020, and his daughter and son-in-law were appointed as trustees in 2021, with Mrs Ingram-Moore as interim chief executive on what appeared to be a fat cat salary. But after an investigation by the Charity Commission, launched in 2022, the couple were this year banned from being charity trustees.
As “misconduct and/or mismanagement” were uncovered in the report, published this week, it was downright horrifying to learn not a penny of a £1.5 million advance paid out for a three-book deal, including Captain Tom’s autobiography, Tomorrow Will Be a Good Day, went to his charitable foundation.
The watchdog found the public had a “reasonable expectation that the Captain Tom books they purchased … would have financially benefited the charity”, and “would understandably feel misled given no donation has been made to the charity”.
Cock-up or conspiracy? Let’s just say that when the Charity Commission wrote to the Ingram-Moores in 2022 to offer them the chance to make a donation, they declined to do so. Twice.
The report also found that the way in which Captain-Tom-branded alcohol, including gin and rosé, was sold was likely to have “misled” supporters who believed they were contributing to the charity.
I suggest deep shame and utter mortification would be an appropriate response to the discovery of “repeated failures of governance and integrity” and “repeated instances of a blurring of the boundaries between private and charitable interests”. But the Ingram-Moores don’t seem to be as big on self-reflection as they are on flogging booze and branded T-shirts. That’s the problem (among many) when the wrong kind of person lands the top job at a charity.
In September of this year, Noel Frost, the international chief executive of Barnabas Aid, was dismissed after The Telegraph revealed he had splurged thousands of pounds on corporate credit cards for flights to Las Vegas and an Ironman challenge.
Frost, 47, also bought bikes and electronics, as well as transferring more than £130,000 into accounts linked to him personally. He has been replaced as chief executive by Colin Bloom, Boris Johnson’s former faith adviser, but it is now feared that Barnabas Aid – a network of charities funding projects by Christians in more than 50 countries – has a £15 million hole in its accounts.
So where does that leave us who, every festive season, always dig deep for those less fortunate? Trust is more than a valuable commodity – it is the very foundation of our society. And if we can’t trust those who run charities, what are we to do?
According to the Charity Commission, British people are not prone to knee-jerk reactions. Rather we employ a common-sense approach. “Media coverage is particularly influential in leading to distrust in charities, but generally the public are cautious to not let the actions of one charity influence how they feel about others,” reads its 2024 research document.
No wonder, then, that Rosie Millard’s exit from BBC Children in Need has made headlines. The 59-year-old writer and broadcaster accused the charity of “institutional failure”.
She cited the fact that the Pudsey bear charity gave £466,000 to LGBT Youth Scotland, which supports gay and transgender people aged 13 to 25. The grants started seven months after its then chief executive, James Rennie, was convicted of child sex assaults in 2009.
Then this year, Andrew Easton, who co-authored schools guidance for the same charity, was convicted of sharing indecent images of children, including newborn babies.
How rebarbative that these predators should be in the employ of a charity that gave them access to children. Presumably lessons will be learnt – or as is the modern parlance “learnings will be made”.
Greater oversight is clearly needed across the whole sector. Meanwhile, in 2024, it’s very much a case not of caveat emptor but caveat donator.
If you want a guarantee that your money will go where it is most needed, look no further than The Telegraph Christmas Charity Appeal. This year we are proud to support Alzheimer’s Research UK, Teenage Cancer Trust, Army Benevolent Fund and the global charity Humanity & Inclusion, which is currently providing crucial care to disabled and vulnerable people in Ukraine. To make a donation, please visit telegraph.co.uk/2024appeal or call 0151 317 5247.