Funding secured for ‘revitalising’ dormant charity funds [ A PROGRAMME THAT takes funds lying dormant in the
accounts of inactive or ineffective charities and puts them to good use has secured funding from DCMS until next March. The programme is managed by the Charity Commission and the charity UK Community Foundations. Since its launch in 2018 the programme has ‘revitalised’ £32m to help good causes – including charities that are responding to the coronavirus and supporting their communities. The new funding will allow the programme to reach out to around 500 more inactive trusts, to help communities in need. Funds are released from charities that are either inactive – meaning they have had no income or expenditure over the past five years – or ineffective, having spent less than 30% of total income over the past five years. Once identified as dormant, the Charity Commission gives the trustees the option to act – with support to help them get the charity back up and running if needed. Otherwise the funds are redeployed to causes in line with the aims of the dormant charity or the trust is transferred to a local community foundation to be managed for the long-term benefit of local communities. The money is granted to charities in need, and can be used to create a regular income stream that will sustain their work to help communities for years.
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The programme has so far seen over 1,800 charities contacted. In many cases the programme has helped them get back on track, but when trustees have failed to respond the commission has intervened to wind up the charity and remove it from the register of charities. The commission has so far removed 179 charities from the register – 67 since lockdown – and revitalised 26 charities. Baroness Stowell, chair of the Charity Commission, commented: “There is nothing worse than money donated for a good cause not being put to good use. So I am delighted that we have helped to release £32m of dormant charitable funds. The charities which for some time were inactive or ineffective that have come forward willingly to assist with this important programme have done a great public service and we are hugely grateful to them. “But this shared effort to revitalise charitable funds and deliver the donors’ intended benefit to society has the potential to go even further – and it’s needed now more than ever.” The Charity Commission is calling on trustees of charities that have funds and are inactive or unable to make the difference they once did or had hoped to achieve, to come forward now so that the charity money they hold doesn’t sit idle, but can be put to good use by other charities with similar causes supporting people and communities at this time of heightened need. q
