The Gazette 1992

MARCH 1992

GAZETTE

W

I N

I

A New Beginning for Charities?

A particularly interesting aspect of the report is the attention which it

In 1990 a Committee headed by Mr. Justice Costello presented a Report on Fund-Raising Activities for Charitable and Other Purposes. The report of the Committee did not attract any great comment in the media but the recent announcement that the Government proposes to implement these proposals has thrown a new spotlight on its contents. Much of the report contains most welcome recommendations. We do not have sufficient control over charities. The fact that 90% of our charities are run with scrupulous honesty does not avoid the need to prevent abuse by those whose interest in a charity is merely as a means to gain personal profit. There is a need to know precisely what part of the contributions apparently made for the benefit of a charity actually reach that charity. There have been disturbing suggestions recently that the main charities have not benefited as significantly from some spectacularly successful fund-raising activities as the donors might have believed. A secondary question is as to whether when funds reach the charity how much of these funds may be gobbled up in administration expenses. There has also been abuse of the law in relation to lotteries of property though the Law Society can pride itself that its warning to members not to get involved in lotteries of houses or pubs seems to have pretty well killed o ff that craze. The Committee recommended an increase in the scope and powers of the Commissioners of Charitable Donations & Bequests. It must be doubted whether, given the nature and scope of its activities since its inception, the Commission will be capable of turning itself into the active monitoring body that clearly will be required in the future.

element of many small fund-raising ventures.

devoted to the activities of professional fund raisers; its

Individual or small groups of individuals should be allowed to organise small to medium scale collection for urgently needed funds. The recent Romanian Orphans Appeals where groups got together to arrange collections of goods, monies, visits of medical personnel and other social workers might well not have been permitted under the sort of legislation envisaged by the Report.

recommendation that fund raisers should be registered and that the form of their contracts of engagement should be subject to ministerial control. This is welcome. If there is an aspect of the report which gives some cause for concern, it is the danger that it may be seen to be recommending too bureaucratic a system of control over charity fund-raising at the lower end of the spectrum. The requirement that organisations (which in itself poses the question of what constitutes an organisation under Irish Law) should be exempt from registration may not be broad enough. The basic requirement that they do not solicit or receive funds in excess of £10,000 should surely be sufficient to exempt them from registration rather than limiting their activities to "local areas" as well. It is to be hoped that the guidelines for the records which such exempted organisations are to maintain will not be too stringent. There is a danger that if the Report were to be implemented too strictly, any new legislation could limit spontaneity which is an essential

Perhaps there were too many representatives of the major charitable organisations and

members of the public service on the Committee. Donors might not have wanted to impose quite such strict

controls over the methods of operation, as distinct from the

financial controls, as the Committee appears to require. The public may be more tolerant of house to house collections and open bucket collections than the Committee believed. The public has a simple method of disapproving of such collections and, unless and until they do, perhaps their view should carry the day. •

Law Society Annual Conference 1992 BERLIN "Lawyers in Business in Europe"

Packages £475 - £650 per person sharing (includes flight, transfers, bed and breakfast in top class hotels).

O V ER 250 A T T E N D I NG - O N L Y A F EW P L A C ES R E M A I N !

Don 't miss this exciting event! Contact Sandra Fisher at the Law Society immediately. Tel: 710711; Fax: 710704.

49