Dark forces at work I think.
I cant understand how it happens that they can make someone redudant who started such a worthwhile thing. You think they would keep a founder in place.
Dark forces at work I think.
Or just a smallish charity caught up in UK charity law? Unfortunately, if someone founds a charity and wants to be able to still be involved in the active control of it they need to ensure that they become a Trustee of the charity - but whilst it is legally possible for a Trustee to also be in receipt of some payment from the charity, the regulators strongly discourage charities from appointing paid employes as Trustees because of the possible conflicts of interest. And they can put pressure on Trustees over this by raising issues of whether they are displaying due diligence with regards to governance if they do have paid employees as Trustees.
The result is that anybody founding a charity is pushed into the position of choosing between being a hands-on employee or a Trustee - otherwise the charity is subject to very careful and, sometimes, very heavy handed intrusive scrutiny. The end result is that most charities maintain a very rigid separation bet5ween the two roles. But of course once you aren't a Trustee then you are handing the strategic control to others and that seems to be the situation that Rob has got himself caught up in with Trustees based in the UK making decisions that he is not party to as en employee out in Goa.
Please note that I am not commenting on the rights and wrongs of this particular situation - I know neither Rob or CWT well enough to have an opinion either way - just trying to explain how someone who has founded an organisation can find themselves being edged out. Of course now that Rob is no longer an employee he CAN now be made a Trustee of CWT and have a say in the future development and management of the charity. How this can be arranged will depend on the details of CWT's constitution.
SM
Just had a quick look at CWT on Charity Commission website, they had a very low spend of around £14,000 last year, yet have got cash reserves in Lloyds TSB of over £100,000. That is £100,000+ that was donated to help the children but is sitting in a bank WHY
I don't know Rob personally but from what I have heard I do know, paid or not, he is 100% there for the children. Wishing you well Rob
Cx
I don't know Rob personally but from what I have heard I do know, paid or not, he is 100% there for the children. Wishing you well Rob
Cx
wow that £100,000 would go very far at the Mango House, J
For anybody who's interested details of CWT's accounts and annual Trustees reports can be downloaded from here:
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/CharityWithoutPartB.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=1106528&SubsidiaryNumber=0
You can also follow the links to find not just an email address but also a postal address for the main contact person out of the three trustess should anybody here want to contact them about any concerns they have.
CWT's income has never dropped below £30,590 (in 2007/8) or been greater that £52,640 (in 2008/9) and their expenditure seems to have fluctuated in line with this - they have tended to spend approx half of their income each year and the reserves have accumulated over the years since their first accounts where submitted in 2006. There isn't necessarily anything sinister in this - given the fluctuations in their income the Charity Commissioners are going to have regarded it as acceptable that they build up some reserves so that should income drop they can draw down from their reserves to keep the charity going and not have to cut back on their activities during an economic downturn.
I am a trustee of a charity and we keep the equivalent of at least 6 months but preferably 12 months running costs in our reserves as a contingency fund - it means that should we have to close the charity down at some point, that it's activities can be wound up in an orderly fashion with time taken to ensure that core work is transferred to other charities that can continue to offer the service to our users and that staff salaries can be covered whilst they serve out their notice period (3 months in our case) plus redundancy payments etc. CWT's reserves are very much in excess of this financial 'buffer' but it is also considered acceptable to build up reserves on deposit so that they become a source of income in themselves via a suitable investment strategy.
The Charity Commissioners will also allow a charity to build up reserves if there is planned capital expenditure that needs to be 'saved up' for. In the case of the charity I'm a trustee of (in Scotland where admittedly the law is a little different) this means that in addition to our contingency fund, we are also busily raising and investing money with a view to funding the purchase (or at a push the long term lease) of a bigger building as soon as we can because we have outgrown our current premises and any expansion of our activities cannot take place until we have obtained more suitable premises. I hasten to add that this is not an HQ/Admin office - we are an active social and educational charity that provides direct services to women and children and we need more space to house our programmes for them because the demand has increased year-on-year by so much.
So there could be legitimate reasons why CWT is bulding up their reserves but anybody who wants to ask them why they are doing this, but especially any past donors to CWT, can contact the trustees via:
MRS PAT LYON
5 LYNCOMBE COURT
RETFORD
DN22 7FY
Tel: 01777 701113
Email: childrenwalkingtall@hotmail.com
Website: http://www.childrenwalkingtall.com
(Note to Mods - the above information is already in the public domain and taken from the Charity Commissioners website so as far as I know there are no privacy issues involved in disclosing the details here.)
SM
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/CharityWithoutPartB.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=1106528&SubsidiaryNumber=0
You can also follow the links to find not just an email address but also a postal address for the main contact person out of the three trustess should anybody here want to contact them about any concerns they have.
CWT's income has never dropped below £30,590 (in 2007/8) or been greater that £52,640 (in 2008/9) and their expenditure seems to have fluctuated in line with this - they have tended to spend approx half of their income each year and the reserves have accumulated over the years since their first accounts where submitted in 2006. There isn't necessarily anything sinister in this - given the fluctuations in their income the Charity Commissioners are going to have regarded it as acceptable that they build up some reserves so that should income drop they can draw down from their reserves to keep the charity going and not have to cut back on their activities during an economic downturn.
I am a trustee of a charity and we keep the equivalent of at least 6 months but preferably 12 months running costs in our reserves as a contingency fund - it means that should we have to close the charity down at some point, that it's activities can be wound up in an orderly fashion with time taken to ensure that core work is transferred to other charities that can continue to offer the service to our users and that staff salaries can be covered whilst they serve out their notice period (3 months in our case) plus redundancy payments etc. CWT's reserves are very much in excess of this financial 'buffer' but it is also considered acceptable to build up reserves on deposit so that they become a source of income in themselves via a suitable investment strategy.
The Charity Commissioners will also allow a charity to build up reserves if there is planned capital expenditure that needs to be 'saved up' for. In the case of the charity I'm a trustee of (in Scotland where admittedly the law is a little different) this means that in addition to our contingency fund, we are also busily raising and investing money with a view to funding the purchase (or at a push the long term lease) of a bigger building as soon as we can because we have outgrown our current premises and any expansion of our activities cannot take place until we have obtained more suitable premises. I hasten to add that this is not an HQ/Admin office - we are an active social and educational charity that provides direct services to women and children and we need more space to house our programmes for them because the demand has increased year-on-year by so much.
So there could be legitimate reasons why CWT is bulding up their reserves but anybody who wants to ask them why they are doing this, but especially any past donors to CWT, can contact the trustees via:
MRS PAT LYON
5 LYNCOMBE COURT
RETFORD
DN22 7FY
Tel: 01777 701113
Email: childrenwalkingtall@hotmail.com
Website: http://www.childrenwalkingtall.com
(Note to Mods - the above information is already in the public domain and taken from the Charity Commissioners website so as far as I know there are no privacy issues involved in disclosing the details here.)
SM
Great post SMa,
Learn something everyday.
Seems to be something more political about Robs departure.
Never knew him or had anything to do with the charity but somehow when you follow someones posts an a forum such as this you feel things personally.
As I said never knew Rob but I along with many others who use HT can only wish him well.
Papa
Learn something everyday.
Seems to be something more political about Robs departure.
Never knew him or had anything to do with the charity but somehow when you follow someones posts an a forum such as this you feel things personally.
As I said never knew Rob but I along with many others who use HT can only wish him well.
Papa
Hi,
Jane here - Trustee for Children Walking Tall.
As I'm sure people will understand the trustees of any charity have to act in the best interests of that charity. Its a very difficult position when the best interests of the charity do not coincide with the best interests of a founder but its our job to act in a way that we believe will result in the charity maximising its potential in the future. All trustees were in agreement that we had to change our management arrangements to ensure that happened and as a result Rob's post was made redundant.
Clearly, its not the purpose of this forum to discuss in detail the business of any Charity but we are happy to respond privately to anyone's concerns. The charity's email address is childrenwalkingtall@hotmail.com and all emails are answered by the trustees. Alternatively you can write to us at the address shown on our website.
Our newsletter is due out at as normal at the end of this month and we hope supporters will be reassured to see that the work at Mango House continues as normal.
Regards
Jane Grimshaw
Jane here - Trustee for Children Walking Tall.
As I'm sure people will understand the trustees of any charity have to act in the best interests of that charity. Its a very difficult position when the best interests of the charity do not coincide with the best interests of a founder but its our job to act in a way that we believe will result in the charity maximising its potential in the future. All trustees were in agreement that we had to change our management arrangements to ensure that happened and as a result Rob's post was made redundant.
Clearly, its not the purpose of this forum to discuss in detail the business of any Charity but we are happy to respond privately to anyone's concerns. The charity's email address is childrenwalkingtall@hotmail.com and all emails are answered by the trustees. Alternatively you can write to us at the address shown on our website.
Our newsletter is due out at as normal at the end of this month and we hope supporters will be reassured to see that the work at Mango House continues as normal.
Regards
Jane Grimshaw
Excellent posts by SMa.
My view is that it's bad PR for the charity to have done this so may not be beneficial in the long run.
Good luck Rob.
My view is that it's bad PR for the charity to have done this so may not be beneficial in the long run.
Good luck Rob.
i disagree what is bad P.R. for this or any other charity is a thread like this where people make dispareging remarks ,about a situation they are not fully informed about,but still make them regardless of the damage these posts can make,we are not party to the reasons nor should be as this is and should remain a private matter,and should maybe well meaning individuals damage a charity who do you think will suffer,not the trustees,not Rob but the children it is there to help
I agree dragon, I have been sitting on my hands all week, trying to stop my reply to this post. The original post was looking for Rob, who has been found.
PLEASE Mods lock this post now before I say something i may regret.
Lin
PLEASE Mods lock this post now before I say something i may regret.
Lin
Now that we have had a couple of other responses and a direct reply from the charity which also provides their contact details I am happy to lock this topic to avoid any further speculation.
Graham
Graham
