Today (12th October 2022), Charity Commission CEO Helen Stephenson CBE has announced that the Commission, as part of a programme alongside Community Foundation Wales and local
partners, has successfully revitalised £1 million to aid charitable causes across Wales.
Speaking at the Charity Commission’s Annual Public Meeting (APM) at Cardiff City Stadium, Helen Stephenson detailed how since its launch in April 2021, the ‘Revitalising Trusts’ programme in Wales has reached its first £1 million milestone. The million-pound sum, sourced from dormant charitable assets, is already starting to benefit local communities.
Addressing attendees, CEO Helen Stephenson said:
This work is absolutely vital. As we face a cost-of-living crisis, we must ensure charitable funds are used to their full potential to help improve as many lives as possible and strengthen communities during these challenging times.
Working with Community Foundation Wales, we have helped direct funds to a number of charitable causes locally, including food banks, an education fund and a domestic abuse awareness programme.
Richard Williams, Chief Executive of Community Foundation Wales said:
We are delighted to have reached the £1m mark in funds released through the Revitalising Trusts programme. Through our support, trustees in Wales who have been struggling are now reassured that their funds are being used for the benefit of their local communities. The grants generated from these monies will provide a vital boost to grassroots charities supporting communities across Wales, as they start to feel the pressure and effects of the cost-of-living crisis.
The Revitalising Trusts programme helps charities overcome challenges which are hindering their ability to effectively advance the charitable causes they advocate and assists dormant charities to release their charitable assets. This is through helping them winding up or transferring assets to another charity with similar purposes.
The regulator invites any trustees to seek support and discuss the future of their charity if they are struggling to get new trustees; spend income; identify beneficiaries or find time to run the charity.
The programme in Wales is backed by the Welsh government which has invested £211,000 to support the Commission in its efforts to ensure charitable assets are being utilised as effectively as possible.
In England, the programme has recovered over £25 million in the past year, injecting over £80 million in communities across the country since its launch in 2019.
Concluding her speech, Helen Stephenson said:
I am truly delighted about this milestone but we still have a long way to go.
We want to free up many more millions of dormant charitable assets in Wales and see communities benefit as they have in England.
Delivering her keynote speech for the APM, Helen Stephenson also addressed charities and the public on the Commission’s role as one of the oldest regulators in existence, discussed guidance available for trustees and the impact of the regulator’s work. This includes recent successful legal action for restitution of over £117,000 from the former trustee of a charity set up to aid patients attending hospitals in North Wales.
Listed speakers at this year’s event also include Charity Commission Chair, Orlando Fraser KC. Photo by Eloquence, Wikimedia commons.