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Charities must stop being 'uncharitable' if they are to survive, warns watchdog

Baroness Stowell - AFP
Baroness Stowell - AFP

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” in a sideswipe at big name charities caught up in controversy and scandal.

The voluntary sector has been rocked by the disclosure that Oxfam and Save the Children were embroiled in sex abuse scandals; growing complains over high salaries paid to charity bosses; and criticism over aggressive fundraising tactics. Olive Cooke, a 92-year-old poppy seller took her own life after being inundated with begging letters.

Olive Cooke
Olive Cooke

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 animal charity’s acting chief executive that amounted to “mismanagement”.

In a keynote speech on Thursday ahead of the Charity Commission’s publication of a new strategy to better hold charities 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 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”.

New research shows confidence in charities has fallen to an all-time low.

Baroness Stowell will say that charities are expected to display high standards of conduct. 

She will say: “It [a charity] must behave like a charity, not just call itself a charity because of the aims it has and the work it does.

“Charitable aims cannot justify uncharitable means. Our evidence shows that many people from all walks of life, across all backgrounds, ages and inclinations, feel this way.

"They may arrive at this point for different reasons […] but they all end up at the same place. Our evidence shows that people want to see charities being held, and holding themselves, to the highest standard of charitable behaviour.”

The Charity Commission itself, which has been criticised in the past for taking too much to carry out investigations, “must become a more effective, robust and proactive regulator”.

The watchdog will work with charities to introduce a change in culture that she will hope will curtail large salaries, calling on the bodies to “run your affairs with integrity and care”.

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