Decision

[Withdrawn] Shoeboxes For Our Heroes (unregistered organisation)

Published 19 October 2017

This decision was withdrawn on 23 January 2020

This case report has been archived in line with our policy because it is over 2 years old.

Applies to England and Wales

1. About the organisation

Shoeboxes For Our Heroes (‘SFOH’) is a limited company, registered at Companies House in June 2017. Its nature of business is described as ‘defence activities’. The organisation is not, and never has been, a registered charity.

2. Why the Charity Commission got involved

The Charity Commission received a number of complaints about this organisation from members of the public. These complaints made a number of serious allegations about the organisation and the behaviour of its founder. The complaints indicated that, despite the organisation not being registered with the Commission, comments had been made on social media that SFOH was a charity / charitable.

The organisation and its founder have also been the subject of adverse media reports. The Commission has a statutory objective to promote public trust and confidence in charities. We therefore needed to identify whether or not SFOH was charitable and, if it was, establish:

• whether it needed to register with us

• whether any charitable funds had been misapplied

3. The action we took

Due to the serious nature of the allegations, we opened a compliance case and contacted the founder to seek clarification regarding the organisation’s finances, governing document and governing body.

We also contacted the Fundraising Regulator and the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator to ensure that they were aware of the issues that had been raised with us.

4. What we found

In order to operate as a charity, a governing document needs to be approved and trustees appointed. We requested sight of the organisation’s governing document in order to establish whether its objects were charitable. No governing document was provided. Nor did we see any evidence that the organisation was charitable. The steps necessary to set up a charity had not been taken.

Due to the absence of any evidence that the organisation was charitable, we provided robust regulatory guidance to the founder, warning him that it was illegal for a non-charity to attempt to raise funds by claiming falsely to be a registered charity.

SFOH has subsequently registered as a Community Interest Company. This means that it now comes under the remit of another regulator, the Regulator of Community Interest Companies.

5. Impact of our involvement

We are robust in our assessment of charitable status and will take regulatory action if we consider that organisations that are not charitable are making claims to be so. In this instance, we made it clear to the organisation that no further reference should be made to being a charity. The Commission’s role in ensuring that organisations do not falsely portray themselves as charitable is essential in maintaining the public’s trust and confidence in charity.

6. Wider lessons for the sector

Non-charitable organisations must not give the impression that they are a charity. Section 63 of the Charities Act 1992 states that where a person solicits money or other property for the benefit of an institution with a representation that the institution is a registered charity and it is not, they shall be guilty of an offence and liable, on conviction, to a fine.

The public give an enormous amount of money to charity - charities depend on it to enable them to do good works and for some charities, public donations are their only source of income. One of the ways the Commission recommends the public ensures it gives safely to charity is to check whether an organisation is a registered charity. The Register of Charities therefore plays an important role in assuring the public of the legitimacy of organisations as well as promoting the transparency of the activities and details of charities that are on it.

Although in this instance we decided that the organisation was not a charity and should not be registered, the Commission will take action to secure compliance if it identifies a charity which isn’t registered but should be. By law, if you set up a charity you must apply to register it with the Commission if it is a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) or its annual income is more than £5,000, unless it is a specific type of charity that doesn’t have to register. Further information about registering a charity can be found on our website at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-register-your-charity-cc21b.