CANNY are urging local charities to check their status on the Charity Commission’s Charity Register after an investigation earlier this year uncovered nearly 250 registered charities, based in the York & North Yorkshire region, were listed as defaulting.
Vin Mc Dermott, Lead Community Accountant for the project said “The investigation was carried out as part of our work towards improving compliance amongst local charities and we subsequently wrote to each of these charities offering our free support to put things right”.
“In the vast majority of cases, these charities had failed to submit their Annual Return within the statutory 10 month deadline, triggering their entry onto the charity commission’s defaulter’s list of those charities with due documents overdue”
Surprisingly, although the support offered from CANNY was free of charge, only a handful of the 250 charities responded to the offer, leaving a significant number of local charities still listed as defaulting.
“Although it was a very disappointing response, one of the main reasons for this could well be that the registered contact details, taken from the Charity Register, were out of date. This stands to reason given the latest Annual Return had not been submitted and could also explain why these charities had failed to respond to the reminders issued by the Charity Commission itself” said Vin.
Submitting an Annual Return to the Charity Commission is a regulatory requirement for all registered charities, regardless of turnover, and failure to do so can have significant consequences.
This was highlighted recently after CANNY came across two local charities that were completely unaware they had been struck off the Charity Register by the Commission having failed to submit Annual Returns or respond to correspondence over a number of years. In both cases it turned out the registered contact details (those of a former trustee) had never been updated by the charity trustees.
Charities can view the Charity Register via the commission’s website at www.charity-commission.gov.uk . Alternatively, contact your local Community Accountant who can provide further guidance or help submitting your Annual Returns on-line.
